


The Trials and Tribulations of Dating Your Daughter's First Grade Teacher: The Levi Ackerman Story

by seaofteeth



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Asexual Character, Asexual Levi, Asexuality, Divorced Dad Levi, Erwin is not an evil ex-husband, Erwin/Mike, Family schmoop, Fluff, M/M, Modern AU, Pining Levi, Substitute Teacher Eren, age gap, grown men acting like blushing high schoolers, it's my party and Armin will sing in a death metal band if I want him to, tw for alcohol, tw for needles
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-06
Updated: 2016-11-15
Packaged: 2018-03-29 06:24:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 36,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3885751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seaofteeth/pseuds/seaofteeth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Levi tries really, really hard not to fall for his daughter's teacher. He fails.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Could I have come up with a more obnoxious title? It's doubtful.
> 
> This story is written by someone who is asexual with other aces in mind, because there isn’t nearly enough representation of us in fanfiction. The rating may go up in rating in the future, but if it does, I will write it so that sex-repulsed aces can skip over that section.

In retrospect, Levi should have known that falling in love with Eren Jaeger was inevitable.

It had been a Tuesday – he can remember because he had packed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for Isabel that day and Tuesday was always PB&J Day – and Levi had been called at work to pick his daughter up from school early.

When he had asked why, the school’s secretary had told him that Isabel had gotten into a fist fight with one of the boys in her class and had given him a bloody nose. The boy’s mother was threatening to sue and his father was borderline hysterical, so could he please come down to the school and pick his daughter up as soon as possible?

He’d ended up needing to use one of his sick days to get out of work. Which was fine – it wasn’t like he ever got sick anyway – but still, things tended to go awry when he wasn’t there. Levi had been promoted to construction foreman just after Isabel had turned three. He’d worked in construction since he was eighteen and had never had any real desire to be promoted until he had a daughter. He’d never minded working with his hands, but doing physical labor for ten hours and coming home to a hyperactive two year old had definitely put him through the ringer.

When he pulled up in front of the school, his daughter was standing by the curb with someone he didn’t recognize. The stranger was young, his messy hair contrasting with the clean lines of his oxford shirt and he was talking to Isabel, making her laugh even though Levi could tell that her eyes were red from crying.

His heart tightened and he got out of the car.

“Dad!” Isabel cried, lunging at him. She buried her face against his stomach and cried into his shirt, offering muffled apologies in between hiccups as her chubby arms wrapped around his waist and squeezed tightly.

“Mr. Ackerman, I’m Eren. I was subbing for Ms. Ral today,” the man said, extending his hand. Levi shook it warily.

“Levi is fine. What happened?”

“Farlan pulled one of my pigtails,” Isabel interjected, wiping her nose on the hem of her father’s shirt. Levi grimaced but patted her head soothingly.

“So she socked him in the nose in retaliation,” Eren said. “Pretty justifiable if you ask me, but parents have a hard time believing their kids are anything but angels.”

He smiled like he was letting Levi in on a secret and Levi felt his chest clench again, but this time it was for an entirely different reason. There was something about the way he smiled so genuinely, his impossibly white teeth and eyes crinkling at the corners – Eren was probably a big hit with the PTA moms. Levi wondered how he felt about divorced dads – or men in general – but he shooed that thought away almost as quickly as it had appeared.

“Well. Thanks for not spewing the ‘that’s how boys show affection’ bullshit at her,” Levi replied, rummaging around in his pocket for a quarter that Isabel could put in the swear jar once they got home. He placed it in her outstretched palm and she pocketed it with a pleased smile and a sniffle, no doubt thinking of the scooter she was saving up for.

“Never. I minored in Gender Studies when I was in undergrad,” Eren said, waving his hand dismissively. “I gotta get going though – the recess aids will have my head if I’m late to pick the kids up.”

“Right. Wouldn’t want that.” It was such a nice head, after all. “Well, thanks again. Should I speak to the principal?”

“I wouldn’t, not while the other parents are in there. Your best bet is to call the secretary when you get home and arrange a meeting another time,” Eren sighed, scratching the back of his head. “Sorry the trouble, I’d just hate to see you get reamed for something their kid deserved.”

‘This man deserves a medal,’ Levi thought to himself.

“Not that you should be hitting people,” Eren amended quickly, as if he suddenly remembered a six year old was in their presence. Levi had to fight back a smile. “Next time, tell me instead so your dad doesn’t have to leave work early, okay?”

“Okay,” Isabel mumbled guiltily.

I’ll see you tomorrow though, right?” He held his hand out for a high five (well, more like a low five in his case) and Isabel slapped her palm against his with renewed enthusiasm, the last of her tears having dried. She grinned widely at him and Levi could see it in her eyes; she was absolutely taken with him. Levi wasn’t surprised – it took a lot of energy to put up with Isabel and Eren looked like he was brimming with it.

He also found himself thinking that his daughter wasn’t the only one taken with her new teacher but again, he banished that thought to the back of his mind. The last thing he needed (or wanted) was a silly crush -- especially on his daughter's substitute teacher.

“Tomorrow?” Levi asked. “I thought you were a substitute?”

“I am,” Eren confirmed over his shoulder, turning to look back at Levi once he had opened the main door to the school. “Ms. Ral is on pregnancy leave, so I’m taking over for the rest of the school year.” He smiled brightly. “It was nice meeting you. I'll have a talk with the principal before your meeting; hopefully he'll go easy on you if I explain the situation to him.”

With that, he gave a final wave and disappeared through the double doors, breaking into a jog once he was inside.

“A couple of months, huh?” Levi said to himself, shaking his head as he took his daughter’s hand and helped her into the backseat of his car.

Maybe Erwin would let him take over parent chaperone duties for awhile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t really have a concrete idea where this is going, only that I wanted to contribute a multi-chapter ace!Levi story to the fandom, so please bear with me. I also wanted to avoid certain tropes that I see a lot in ereri fanfiction — like the “evil ex-husband Erwin” trope — so Erwin and Levi’s divorce is literally the most amicable divorce in the history of divorces and they’re still best friends, basically.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The support I've received for this story so far has been unexpected and overwhelming. Your kind words and encouragements mean more than I can say and I can only hope that I write a story that is worthy of them. 
> 
> This chapter was already half-written when I posted the first one, so I can't promise that future chapters will be posted as quickly, but I'm gonna try my best!

“Daddy!”

Levi watched as Erwin scooped their daughter up and swung her around in the air, her shrieks and giggles echoing through the gated community where his ex-husband lived. He did his best to ignore the slight panic he felt watching Isabel being swung around so precariously; Erwin would sooner cut off his own arm than let her get hurt, he knew that. Even so, he was relieved when he set her back down on the grass.

Levi held out her backpack to him.

“She has a book report due on Friday,” he said. “Four complete sentences.”

“Four whole sentences. It’ll be college applications before you know it,” Erwin simpered, taking the bag and gesturing for Levi to follow him inside. Isabel darted up to her bedroom, conveniently forgetting to grab her backpack on her way up.

“We have a meeting with the principal tomorrow to discuss Isabel’s ‘violent tendencies,’” Levi told him, his tone dry. Mike, Erwin’s live-in boyfriend, was sprawled on the couch watching television in his boxers and a tank top, looking somewhat out of place in Erwin’s professionally decorated living room. He looked comfortable though, and Levi gave him a wave of acknowledgement before continuing. “I had to pick her up early because she punched a future frat boy in the nose.”

“Hey now,” Erwin said, putting his hand over his heart as if he were gravely offended. “I was in a fraternity.”

“Don’t remind me.”

“Was she provoked?” Erwin asked as he turned on his electric kettle. To an outsider, he looked perfectly calm. Levi could tell he was anything but. He’d known Erwin long enough to notice the minute tensing of his shoulders, the tightness of his jaw. Erwin was as protective of their daughter as Levi was.

“Some boy pulled her hair. I told her to aim for the crotch next time.”

From the couch, Levi heard a snort of amusement.

“Levi…” Erwin frowned in disapproval.

“What?” Levi asked sharply. “Like hell if I’m gonna raise her to think that kind of behavior is acceptable.”

His ex-husband sighed, sliding a mug of hot water over to Levi.

“Earl Grey or chamomile?”

“Earl Grey is fine.”

Erwin tossed him a teabag and Levi caught it with ease, taking a seat at the kitchen table before dropping it into the mug.

“I still think she should be taking self defense classes.”

“She’s in first grade,” Erwin replied, pulling out a cutting board and a celery stalk. He began chopping it into smaller pieces, moving them to the side of the board as he did so. “She can learn how to bust kneecaps like her dad when she’s older.”

Levi grunted non-committally, watching his teabag steep.

“She has a new teacher. About time, since Ms. Ral was looking like she was gonna burst any second.” He paused. “She seems to really like him.”

“She?” Erwin mused, smiling coyly as he brushed the celery sticks onto a plastic plate with a Disney character on it.

Levi pursed his lips. “You trying to imply something?”

“I just haven’t seen you with that look in awhile,” Erwin said, grabbing a bottle of ranch dressing out of the fridge. “The little half-smile you make when someone peaks your interest.”

“Levi likes someone?” Mike piped up from the couch, sitting up so that he could join in the conversation.

“You’re imagining things.” Levi sampled his tea, doing his best not to make a face. Over the tea, of course, not Erwin’s potentially accurate accusation.

After all, he much preferred his loose tea leaves over Lipton.

“I’m just happy she’s happy, that’s all.”

“Isabel, come get your snack!” Erwin called up the steps before squeezing a dollop of ranch next to the neatly sliced celery and setting the plate on the table. “I guess we’ll see when I meet him at the parent-teacher conference, hmm?”

“Don’t look so smug. It makes you look constipated,” Levi drawled, taking a longer swig of his tea. “He’s way too young for my tastes. He looks fresh out of grad school.”

“I never would have pegged you for a cradle robber,” Mike said as he plopped down in the chair next to him and helped himself to a celery stick. He gave it a sniff before taking a bite.

“Did you even hear what I just said?”

“You wouldn’t be this defensive if you weren’t even a little bit into him,” Erwin smiled as they listened to the trademark thump-thump-thump of Isabel pounding down the stairs. She had changed out of her school uniform into Batman pajamas, though both of her fathers politely ignored the fact that she was wearing the top backwards. She climbed into the chair next to Levi and Erwin pushed the plate towards her before taking the open seat next to Mike.

“Wash your hands first,” Levi said, giving her hand a light tap when she reached for her snack.

“I did,” Isabel insisted and Mike nodded in agreement.

“She did. I can smell the soap.”

“That’s still fucking weird, you know,” Levi said, sliding a quarter out of his pocket and into Isabel’s greedy palm.

“I thought we agreed you would stop swearing around her,” Erwin said, giving him a look. “That’s another parent-teacher conference waiting to happen.”

Well. Seeing Eren under those circumstances might not be so bad. If anything, Levi had a feeling he’d find it amusing.

“Not likely. The Swear Jar Rule is still in effect,” Levi shrugged. “I have yet to hear a bad word out of her; she likes money almost as much as her daddy does.”

Erwin gave him another look and Levi took a slow, pointed sip of his tea.

“I’m only twenty two dollars and twenty five cents away from being able to buy my very own scooter,” Isabel said proudly, as if she had been working hard for it.

Well, he supposed straining her ears for any foul word out of her dad’s mouth in all rooms of the house could count as work. For a first grader, anyway.

“Do I even want to know how much the scooter costs?” Erwin asked.

Levi covered his daughter’s mouth before she could reply.

* * *

 

The meeting ended up being scheduled a half hour after school ended, which was convenient enough for Levi but not so much for Erwin, who had to leave work early. Erwin’s work attire, however, was much more suited to their daughter’s private institution. Having just come from a site, Levi was wearing a white tee and jeans that were at least a decade old with holes in the knees and paint splatter across the thighs. He wore deodorant, but after spending the entire day in the sun overseeing his crew, he strongly doubted he smelled like a fresh bouquet – or Erwin, who smelled like Armani. Despite having been at his downtown office all day, there was not a single wrinkle in Erwin’s suit to be found.

He supposed that was just one of the perks of having a white collar job.

Levi had picked Erwin up from his office in the company truck, driving straight for the school. Erwin was on the phone up until they arrived, which was unsurprising given the fact that he’d had to leave work two and a half hours early. Frankly, Levi didn’t mind – it allowed his mind to wander as he drove.

He didn’t know what to expect at this meeting. Eren had said he would take care of it, but he doubted a twenty-something year old substitute had very much pull at any school, let alone Sina Elementary. The tuition was equivalent to a semester at a state university, and that was without taking uniforms and school supplies into account.

Since Sina Elementary was an independent school, they didn’t utilize the yellow bus system. Children could only be picked up by car and every day at 3:00pm, the parking lot was a literal shit show of Honda Odysseys operated by impatient parents. Hell, normally Levi was one of them (albeit not in an Odyssey.) Since it was half past three though, the parking lot was relatively empty and Levi was able to find a place to park without any trouble.

“Let’s get this over with,” he sighed as he slid out of the driver’s seat. Erwin pocketed his phone and followed suit.

“I thought you’d be excited to see Isabel’s new teacher again. I, for one, can’t wait to meet him.”

“There’s a sledgehammer in the back of my truck, you know.”

Erwin grinned. “Now, now.”

The trek to Isabel’s classroom was a silent one, the hallways eerily quiet without hoards of children occupying them. It wasn’t even until they got closer to Isabel’s classroom that they heard any sign of life at all besides the floor buffer in use in another corridor of the building. Levi recognized his daughter’s voice instantly and Erwin knocked politely on the door frame before they stepped inside the familiar classroom.

“Dads!” Isabel exclaimed, her face lighting up at the sight of them. She flung the picture book she had been holding open into Eren’s lap and ran towards them, giggling when Erwin hoisted her up in the air and held her in the crook of his arm.

“We learned how to count money today!”

“Did you now?” Erwin asked, brushing a stray lock of hair out of her face. “I bet you blew everyone away.”

“She sure did,” Eren chuckled, shelving the book before walking over to them. “When it came to adding up quarters, no one else came close.”

“I’ve had lots of practice,” their daughter said proudly, puffing up her chest. “Dad gives me a quarter every time he –“

Levi coughed loudly.

Eren laughed again, holding out his hand in Erwin’s direction. “Hi, I’m the new sub, Eren.”

Erwin shook his hand firmly, smiling. “Erwin Smith. Thank you for looking after Isabel. Despite yesterday’s incident, I hope she doesn’t give you too much trouble.”

“Oh no, she’s been great,” Eren assured him, making eye contact with Levi. He flashed him a genial smile and Levi shoved his hands in his pocket, keeping his eyes trained on Erwin. His face was _not_ warm.

“She’s been showing me around the classroom and everything, ” Eren continued. “Oh, but while you’re here – I noticed your name on the volunteer parents list. Will you be coming with us to the zoo next week?”

“Normally, I would love to,” Erwin replied, setting Isabel down so she could grab her backpack and empty her cubby. “But I’m pretty swamped at work these days. Levi, however, has graciously offered to take my place. Isn’t that right, Levi?” He patted his ex-husband’s shoulder, smiling with all his teeth.

“Yeah,” Levi murmured, inspecting the tile floor with the toe of his boot.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to talk -- he just refused to add any fuel to the fire Erwin was clearly trying to light. Anything he said to Eren could and most likely would be used against him. It would also most likely be relayed to Mike, which would be an even bigger annoyance. Erwin was bad enough; the last thing he needed was the two of them teaming up on him.

“Great! I’ll take all the help I can get,” Eren said brightly.

“Eren says there’ll be lions!” Isabel chimed in, coat in one hand and lunch box in the other. “And zebras!”

“You don’t mind them calling you by your first name?” Erwin asked, raising an eyebrow.

“The principal doesn’t like it, but my last name can be hard for kids to spell and I don’t like being called Mr. Jaeger anyway,” Eren explained, shrugging. Levi took Isabel’s backpack from her and helped guide her arms into her coat, wondering why that name sounded vaguely familiar. Did he know any Jaegers?

“You should get going if you don’t want to be late for your meeting,” Eren added, nodding towards the large clock above the door. “I already spoke with the principal about yesterday, so hopefully you won’t be in there too long. It was nice to see you again, Levi. And to meet you, Mr. Smith.”

“It was _so_ nice to meet _you_ , Eren,” Erwin smiled. Levi stomped on his foot as discreetly as possible, taking Isabel’s hand.

“See you at pick-up tomorrow,” he mumbled, tugging his daughter along as she waved at her teacher frantically.

“Bye!”

Erwin waited until they were a safe distance from the classroom before he spoke up.

“Well, he seems nice.”

“Shut up, Erwin.”

“Eren _is_ nice,” Isabel agreed, her light-up sneakers squeaking on the linoleum tile. “Ms. Ral is nice too, but Eren plays with me more. And he makes funny voices during story time.”

“Yeah, well. Cut Ms. Rail some slack. It’s hard to chase a spitfire like you around with a baby in your belly,” Levi said, squeezing her hand affectionately. She held out her other hand for Erwin to take and they swung her as they walked, listening to her talk about her day in detail in between shrieks of laughter every time they lifted her into the air.

It was times like these that Levi was hit with an overwhelming sense of gratitude that he was lucky enough to be raising a child with his best friend. Even if said best friend could be an enormous pain in his ass when it came to his social life (or lack thereof.)

The fact was he doubted there was any feasible way he could date his daughter’s teacher in good conscience. There had to be some kind of rule against it, right? And even if there wasn’t, what would someone like Eren see in someone like him? More importantly – how awkward would it be to pick up Isabel every day when Eren inevitably rejected him? Hell, he probably wasn't even single.

But Levi couldn’t let himself worry about hypotheticals though, not when they had a more pressing issue at hand. When they reached the office, they set Isabel up with the secretary and a coloring book before entering the lion’s den.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to hit me up @ nachoheichou.tumblr.com (tagged nsfw content) with questions, comments, headcanons, etc!


	3. Chapter 3

Principal Nile Dawk did not look like an elementary school principal.

For starters, he had a goatee that, personally, Levi felt he should have left in the '90s where it belonged. The mustache wasn’t doing him any favors either. Regardless, he had several plaques and diplomas decorating the wall behind his desk, no doubt with the intent to advertise his prowess in the field of children’s education. Levi was not convinced but shook his hand anyway, Erwin’s elbow sharp against his shoulder* as a reminder to be courteous.

The ache in his shoulder aside, Levi wasn’t really fazed by the situation. Dawk was eyeing his work attire in disapproval but it wasn’t the first time he’d looked out of place in Erwin’s world and it probably wouldn’t be the last time, either. When they’d decided to put Isabel in private school, he knew that these kind of situations would arise. It didn’t matter. He was here because Isabel was his daughter and he wanted to support her; Erwin was here to mold Dawk like he was play-doh.  

“I’m going to cut to the chase,” Dawk said, gesturing for the two of them to sit in the chairs facing his desk. He took a seat in his own chair, interlacing his fingers and setting them atop his desk.

“The Churchs have agreed not to sue you or the school. However –“ Levi grit his teeth, glancing over at Erwin. “They asked that Isabel be transferred to a different classroom.”

Levi felt his stomach drop. He opened his mouth to retort but immediately closed it when Erwin placed his hand over Levi’s closed fist. 

“With all due respect, Mr. Dawk, The Churchs’ son is the one who instigated the occurrence in the first place,” Erwin said calmly, his gaze unwavering.  “If they’re so concerned with separating the two of them, why not have him switch classrooms?”

“Mr. Jaeger did inform me that it was Farlan who instigated the fight, yes,” Dawk said, looking vaguely bothered by the memory. “But Isabel should have brought the issue to teacher instead of reacting violently and escalating the situation. By doing so, she directly violated the school handbook that every student receives at the beginning of the year. It outlines the rules we abide by here quite clearly.”

Levi was pretty sure that handbook was being used to prop up his unlevel kitchen table right now, but he said nothing.

“And the boy didn’t? Perhaps if there had been adequate supervision, Farlan never would have had the chance to instigate a fight,” Erwin replied icily. “Or at the very least, Isabel wouldn’t have felt like she needed to defend herself. I don’t think our daughter deserves to be punished for a lack of attention of your institution’s part.” 

The corner of Levi’s mouth twitched as he quietly relished the way Dawk seemed to squirm in his seat. 

“Now, if the Churchs wish to take you to court over this matter, I’d be happy to defend the school pro bono,“ he continued. “But Isabel enjoys her current class environment and to transfer her to a different classroom in the middle of a school year could be detrimental to her education. An education, I might add, that I pay twenty grand for annually.” 

“With the exception of our students here on merit, everyone pays the same tuition to be here, Mr. Smith,” Dawk pointed out, adjusting his tie. If Levi had to guess, he would say it was probably a nervous habit. He had paled considerably since their conversation had started and if hadn’t been trying to place blame on their daughter, Levi’d feel a little sorry for him. But as it stood, he didn’t.

It was times like these that Levi was grateful he shared custody of Isabel with a lawyer.

“Yes, that’s true. But I had one of my junior associates look into the Churchs and I think it’s safe to say I have a little more pull than them, wouldn’t you agree?” Erwin smiled briefly before his expression shifted entirely, his eyes dark with warning. “I represent a lot of important people, Mr. Dawk. Powerful people. _People who owe me favors._ ”

 “Mr. Smith, you are not the first parent to threaten me,” Dawk said, sighing as he rubbed his temple. “Look, speaking candidly – The Churchs are regular donators to the school. They also have legacy. So while you may be used to getting your way, gentlemen, I’m afraid that will not be the case today.”

The silence in the room was palatable. Honestly, Isabel being transferred to another classroom wasn’t the worst possible outcome. Their daughter was incredibly adaptable and while she would be disappointed, Levi knew she’d make friends in her new class in no time.

He glanced at Erwin out of the corner of his eye. His ex-husband had pride, but he also picked his battles. Isabel wasn’t being suspended or sued, so why was he pushing so hard?

Wordlessly, Erwin pulled out his checkbook. Levi watched with wide eyes as he scribbled a number down, though he noticed Erwin’s hand conveniently blocked him from seeing what the number was. He ripped out the check and slid it over to Dawk who, with a surprised cough, folded the check and slid it in his suit pocket.

“I see your point, Mr. Smith. Thank you for taking the time to come in and meet with me.”

“Of course,” Erwin replied, standing. Levi took it as his cue to do the same. The second the door closed beside them, Levi grabbed Erwin’s forearm and squeezed.

“What the hell was that?” he hissed under his breath. “It’s not like you to get caught up in this kind of bullshit, especially when Isabel wasn’t even in any danger of getting kicked out.”

“If Isabel wasn’t in Mr. Jaeger’s class, you wouldn’t have any excuse to see him anymore, would you?” Erwin smiled, looking rather pleased with himself.

“Are you fucking serious?" Levi balked. "Erwin, it’s not even – it’s not worth whatever you wrote on that check –“

“Levi,” Erwin said seriously, turning to face him. “It’s been years since you’ve shown even an iota of interest in anyone. I know you’re perfectly content not dating and dedicating all your time to Isabel, and that’s fine. You’re a great father. But you having an opportunity to find someone who can make you happy is much more important than a number to me.”

“I never even said I was interested,” Levi grumbled after a long, stunned pause.

Erwin chuckled, patting his shoulder.

“You didn’t need to.”

 

* * *

 

Upon stepping onto the rented charter bus, Levi realized he probably should have thought this through. He had done a lot of things to support his daughter since he and Erwin had adopted her, but going on a field trip had never been one of them. Now, he was confronted with the terror that was a bus filled with noisy children and a handful of their parents and he wasn’t sure which one of them was a lesser evil.

Interacting with other parents was Erwin’s realm of expertise, not his, and since Erwin had more paid time off than Levi did, it had always made sense for Erwin to be the one who volunteered to chaperone field trips. Not that either of them _had_ to go, but they liked to think of themselves as the ‘involved’ parents that their own parents never were. Erwin’s childhood had been a blue-blood bureaucratic nightmare and Levi’s childhood hadn’t been much of a childhood at all. In fact, he couldn’t think of a single time he even went out a field trip when he was in grade school. When he’d been younger, his uncle had never wanted to pay the extra fees and by the time he was in high school, he was skipping them so he could pick up extra shifts at his part-time job.

He had assumed he’d be sitting next to Isabel on the bus, but Isabel quickly dismissed _that_ pipe dream.

“I sit with my friends,” she had said, as if it were obvious. “Daddy always sits with the other parents.”

Levi didn’t think he was a great person, but he certainly was an okay one. He paid his bills on time. He cleaned his elderly neighbor’s gutters and mowed her lawn. He tipped well (not as well as Erwin, admittedly, but never under twenty percent.)

In other words, Levi was pretty sure he didn’t deserve _this._

He scanned the bus for an empty seat. There were two that he could see: one next to a child who seemed to think he was being discrete about picking his nose and the other was next to a parent who was currently chewing someone out on her cell phone, presumably an unlucky subordinate.

“Levi, you look like you’re about to self combust,” a voice said behind him. He turned around and there was Eren, flashing him a knowing grin. 

He looked amazing. Apparently teachers were granted some leniency on field trips, because Eren had traded in his khakis and dress shoes for a pair of dark wash jeans and worn high-top sneakers. His loose fit V-neck showed off not only his defined collarbones, but a smattering of freckles on his sun-kissed skin and suddenly, Levi’s decision to tag along on what was surely to be The Field Trip From Hell made perfect sense again.

“Here, just sit up front with me,” Eren continued, gesturing towards the two empty seats behind the bus driver. “I don’t bite and it’ll be quieter.”

Was he that transparent? Either way, Levi wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth (well, he was, but he was willing to make an exception when it came to his daughter’s impossibly attractive teacher.)

He muttered a quick thank you and slid into the window seat, checking his phone while Eren went down the aisle and did a headcount.

He had one text and it was from Erwin.

  

[image shown: a received iPhone text bubble that reads ‘Good luck!’ followed by a thumbs up emoji.]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *I initially wrote this as Erwin elbowing Levi's side, but when I [compared their height differences](http://nachoheichou.tumblr.com/post/118567492312/i-was-writing-about-erwin-elbowing-levi-in-the), I realized that's not even remotely possible ahahaha. So if you wondered why it's his shoulder, that's why.
> 
> Anyway.... 
> 
> (slam dunks amicable divorced eruri into basket with 2 seconds left in the game)(crowd cheers)(wins championship)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay; I work 9-5 and my job is pretty life-sucking, so writing doesn't always come easy. Kind of embarrassing it took me a month to publish a 1.5k chapter, honestly, but this story won't ever be abandoned, it just might take me awhile to update. The next chapter is mostly written though so it shouldn't be as long of a wait this time!

Everything smelled like ape shit.

Honestly, Levi should have foreseen this. Shit and animals went hand-in-hand. But here he was in the primate house, holding his hand over his nose in a way that was about as discreet as someone scratching their balls in public. Isabel apparently didn’t notice the pungent aroma, as she was currently running towards the baboon exhibit with Levi’s gaggle of other assigned children. He watched with horror as Isabel pressed her hands against the glass, glass that was already covered with smudged handprints and what were probably colonies upon colonies of germs. He grimaced, instinctually reaching for the small bottle of hand sanitizer in his pocket to make sure it was still there.

There was, however, _one_ upside to this whole ordeal.

Levi glanced at Eren out of the corner of his eye. They hadn’t said much to each other on the bus ride over. Levi had never been good at small talk and Eren seemed to think he didn’t want to talk, so they sat in silence. Which was fine and might have even been comfortable if Levi hadn’t spent the entire drive mentally berating himself for being unable to think up a vaguely interesting conversation topic.

Now, Eren was smiling fondly as he watched the kids laugh with delight and wonder, his arms crossed over his chest. Shit, his smile was nice. Levi didn’t know how anyone could smile with this kind of air quality, but Eren made it look easy. The lighting in the room was soft so as not to disturb its furry inhabitants; it made Eren look like he was glowing, ethereal. Levi wanted to touch his cheek, see if it felt as smooth as it looked, wanted to tuck that errant strand of hair behind his ear. He wondered if he washed behind them like he was supposed to; most people forgot. Levi never did.

“Your face is gonna get stuck that way, you know,” Eren said, tilting his chin in the direction of Levi’s furrowed brow. Levi looked away quickly; he hadn’t realized Eren had known he was watching him.

“It already is,” he replied, his response muffled by the hand still covering his mouth. His heart thumped just a little bit louder when Eren laughed in response. The air was warm and humid; apparently primates liked it that way. Levi was sure that was why he felt like he was overheating.

Upon arriving, the class had been split up into three pre-assigned groups. Each group required two chaperones and seeing as Levi was the odd man out, he was lucky enough to be paired up with the reason he wanted to come on this field trip in the first place. He wasn’t complaining but like on the bus ride over, he found himself at a loss for words.

“Sorry you got stuck with me,” he eventually said, nudging a clod of dirt on the floor with the toe of his shoe. 

“Trust me, you’re doing me a favor,” Eren replied, grinning in his direction. His teeth looked so white against his tan skin; honestly, that smile should be illegal. “The parents here are something else.”

“Oh?” Levi asked, arching an eyebrow.

“I’ve been here what, like a week? Someone’s mom tried to slip me her house key.”

Levi snorted, though he wondered if he had any right to. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one who had noticed that Eren was far from homely. 

“Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up. I can’t even look her in the eye now,” Eren said, his brow pinched even as the corners of his mouth curled upward. “If that’s not enough, most of the parents here have serious entitlement issues.” As if suddenly realizing what he just said, he added in a rush: “Not you though, of course.”

Levi was glad his hand was still hiding his traitorous mouth as it threatened to stretch across his face and reveal his teeth. So maybe this teacher was human after all.

“Bet you say that to all the parents,” he replied, slowly lowering his hand from his face. His nose had finally adjusted to the offensive smell and he helped himself to his travel-size bottle of hand sanitizer, squirting a healthy amount onto his palm.

“Just the ones I actually like,” Eren said as they shuffled along at a healthy distance behind the students to the next enclosure, which was thankfully outside. Gibbons swung from branch to branch, calling to each other. “Your husband doesn’t seem so bad either.”

“Ex-husband,” Levi corrected; it was second nature by now. Eren wasn’t the first person to think he and Erwin were still married and he doubted he’d be the last. It didn’t really faze him but Eren had stopped suddenly at his words, shock written all over his face.

“You’re divorced?”

“Yeah, you didn’t know?” Levi asked as he rubbed the sanitizer into his hands; he was just as surprised as Eren was. “I figured it’d be in Isabel’s file or something.”

“No, I mean – I only met him the one time but you just seem really close.” Eren made a vague gesture with his hand as he struggled to articulate himself. “Not that – Sorry, I don’t want to open any old wounds or anything –“

“You’re not,” Levi assured him. “Don’t worry about it.”

With the exception of Isabel, Levi loved Erwin more than anyone. He just wasn’t _in_ love with him anymore.

Eren scratched the back of his head, looking sheepish. “Wow. Now that I think about it, the drawing Isabel made the other day makes a lot more sense now.”

“Oh, yeah. It has Mike in it, doesn’t it?” Levi recalled, thinking of the drawing that was currently tacked to Erwin’s fridge. 

He really did love Isabel, but his daughter’s current art skills were reminiscent of his own: non-existent. However, each of the figures had been distinct enough to figure out who was who. Levi’s depiction was a good deal shorter than the other two men, with a black scribble for hair and a straight line for a mouth. Erwin and Mike seemed unnecessarily tall by comparison, differentiated by Erwin’s blonde hair and Mike’s giant nose. If he remembered correctly, the two of them were holding hands (well, they had connected stick arms, anyway.) Isabel was depicted flying over them with a cape. Not exactly realistic, but Levi gave her props for creativity.

“And Mike is Erwin’s…?”

“Boyfriend,” Levi supplied.

“When I saw her drawing, I thought you guys might be swingers,” Eren admitted, looking vaguely embarrassed. 

“You came to that conclusion from a six year old’s drawing?” Levi asked, biting back a laugh. “I’m not that adventurous. Pretty boring, actually.”

He wondered just what kind of impression Eren had had been harboring of him for the last couple weeks. Swingers? He didn’t feel inclined to have sex with the people he _did_ like, let alone other people. Erwin would get a kick out of Eren’s theory though, that was for sure.

“I sincerely doubt someone as rambunctious as Isabel could be raised by a boring parent,” Eren said with a faint smile, gesturing towards Levi’s daughter who was currently doing her best impression of a gibbon. Loudly.

Levi groaned, shaking his head in embarrassment. “I don’t know where she gets that from, but it definitely isn’t me.”

“She’s doing a great job,” Eren said and even though his tone was teasing, his grin was sincere. “She should join the drama club, hone her potential.”

“Yeah, because she really needs to learn how to be more dramatic,” Levi drawled in response.

He let Isabel continue her gibbon impression until she started trying to climb over the fence separating her from her furry brethren. Then he was striding over to her, hurriedly tugging her down before an employee saw them. She squealed with surprise when he put his free hand over her mouth, effectively silencing her.

“You’re gonna get us kicked out, goofball,” he chided, removing his hand before she could lick his palm in retaliation. He could hear Eren’s poorly stifled laugh behind him. Isabel merely grinned, puffing up her cheeks and waving her arms wildly.

“I’m a monkey!”

“Yeah, believe me, I know.”

“What were you talking to Eren about?”

The question was sudden enough that Levi was momentarily taken aback. He glanced over at her teacher, quickly averting his eyes when he realized he was being watched. 

No, not watched. Studied.

It was an odd feeling, one that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He couldn’t tell if he wanted Eren to look away or not, but he did know he wasn’t going to check to see if those green eyes were still focused so intently on him.

“How well you draw,” Levi replied smoothly. It wasn’t too much of a lie. “He really liked your family portrait.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. You got real potential, Picasso.”

Isabel furrowed her brow in confusion. “Who’s Picasso?”

“Dead painter. Come on, the lions are next.”

“Lions! Lions!” she chanted excitedly, nearly punching Levi in the stomach with her enthusiastic arm motions. He sighed, taking her hand. 

Erwin would never let him live it down if they got banned from the zoo.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Exciting news! I have a beta now (the_ugly_fic_ling) and she's absolutely wonderful; in the two days I've been speaking with her, I already feel like my writing has gotten eons better. Writing this story feels a lot less daunting now, as I know she'll be able to steer me back on course should I start to lose sight of a plot. Thank you, Bri!
> 
> Also, I just wanted to say that the comments I've been getting on this story so far have been so, so nice (especially the ones from fellow aces!) and they mean more to me than I can say, honestly. Even if it takes me awhile to update, your words of encouragement and feedback keep me going, so thank you!
> 
> Lastly, don't pay much attention to the rating change; there's just a mention of grabbing dicks in this chapter and I'd rather be safe than sorry!

“You blew it,” Hange said as they took another swig of their third beer. The bar was loud, but Hange was louder, and Levi had no problem picking out the underlying frustration and judgment in their voice.

“There was nothing to blow,” Levi said, picking at the wrapper on his nearly empty bottle. “It was a field trip, not a date.”

“Oh, I’m sure there’s _something_ to blow,” Hange said with a leer. Levi rolled his eyes.

“Even if I hadn’t ‘blown’ it – which I didn’t – I still wouldn’t be blowing him, you four-eyed nympho.”

“I know, I know. But who can resist an opportunity for a raunchy pun?” Hange replied, hiccuping slightly as they wiped their mouth with the back of their hand. “Not I.”

“You turn into an idiot when you drink,” Levi said dryly, leaning forward to flick their forehead. Hange grumbled in protest, swatting at his hand and missing by a good several centimeters. “A first grade field trip isn’t exactly a prime location to build a relationship, you know. I don’t know what you and Erwin expected.”

“We hoped you would at least get his _number_ ,” they said, rife with disappointment. “Or find out if he’s interested in men, or if he’s single, or basically any tidbit of information about him besides the fact that he’s your daughter’s first grade teacher.”

“I found out he likes barbecue potato chips.”

“Watching him eat lunch like some kind of creep does not count,” Hange scowled, finishing their beer in one gulp. “You’re hopeless.”

“Refusing to nose dive into relationships like you and Erwin doesn’t make me hopeless,” Levi grumbled.

It was hard, however, to ignore the sting of his own self-doubt. He could never decipher if “hanging out” meant going to see a movie or grabbing each other’s dicks and he wasn’t interested in the latter, which made dating more than a little complicated.

Hange mumbled something under their breath that sounded annoyingly similar to a chicken cluck and Levi rolled his eyes again, finishing his beer and gesturing for Mike to bring them another round.

Mike cracked open two new bottles, sliding the first one over to Hange. He held the second beer out to Levi, only to hold it just out of his reach when Levi went to grab it.

“Don’t come to my bar to mope.”

“I’m not moping,” Levi said defensively, snatching his beer from the man. Mike gave him a pointed look, crossing his arms over his chest.

“You are,” Hange said.

“I’m not.”

He was. A little.

Levi wasn’t cut out for dating. He didn’t know how to flirt, or what to say, how to act. His only serious relationship had been with Erwin, and Erwin had been the one to pursue him, not the other way around.

“Look, I don’t need the two of you critiquing my every move. It’s annoying enough when Erwin does it, and god forbid Isabel picks it up,” Levi said, helping himself to a generous gulp of his drink. “So quit it.”

“We only critique because we care,” Hange insisted, putting their hand on his shoulder. “And because we know expressing your feelings isn’t exactly your area of expertise.”

“I need to take a shit,” Levi said dryly, sliding off the barstool and heading in the direction of the bathroom.

“You see, that’s exactly what I’m talking about!” Hange called after him. He pretended he couldn’t hear them over the din as he wove through the throng of Friday night bar-goers, avoiding physical contact with them as possible.

When he reached the bathroom, Levi refrained from making eye contact with its other inhabitants and locked himself in the farthest stall. It was, as usual, mercifully clean - maybe not quite to his standards, but Mike ran a tight ship - so he knocked the lid of the toilet down with the toe of his boot and took a seat before exhaling a heavy sigh of relief.

He knew his friends just wanted him to be happy, but he wasn’t necessarily unhappy, and that was probably what frustrated him the most when it came to their involvement in his harmless crush. While Hange was likely just bored and looking for a new form of entertainment, he had a sneaking suspicious that Erwin was out to assuage his own conscience. But Erwin’s guilt over the divorce wasn’t Levi’s problem; he was over it, whether his ex-husband believed him or not. 

After a couple minutes of much needed solitude, he stood and flushed for good measure, reaching for the lock on the stall door when he heard two people walk into the room.

“We could have gone somewhere else.”

“Yeah, but this place is within walking distance to her apartment so it’s convenient. It’s her promotion, Jean.”

“She’s not even drinking! We’re supposed to be celebrating and she hasn’t had a single sip.” Levi didn’t recognize the voice.

“That doesn’t mean she’s not having a good time. Mikasa just doesn’t like to drink on work nights. Wash your hands.”

The name was what really caught Levi’s attention.

_Mikasa._

“I am, I am! Jeez, Armin. I already have a mom, you know.”

Levi exited the stall then, heading over to the sink and washing his hands thoroughly. He glimpsed at the reflections of the two strangers in the mirror above the faucet, studying them. They were oblivious to his presence as they tugged paper towels from the dispenser, drying their hands and continuing to bicker amicably.

Watching them, he deduced that the first voice had been “Jean”, which meant the one with the softer voice – the blonde with the bowl cut – was “Armin”. They looked young, probably in their early twenties.

He did the math in his head. The Mikasa he had known would be twenty three now, give or take.

He still remembered her solemn expression as she had watched her parent’s ashes being poured into the ground.

He’d only met his second cousin once, just after her parents had died. It had actually surprised him to learn he had a cousin; his uncle had never mentioned any relatives. She hadn’t looked him or anyone else in the eye, vehemently ignoring any sympathetic look that was shot her way by the few who had attended the funeral. Levi couldn’t blame her. Had Levi been in her situation, he probably would have done the same. But his father hadn’t stuck around long enough for him to notice his absence and his mother hadn’t had a funeral. He’d barely been able to form the word “goodbye” before he’d been dumped on the front steps of his uncle’s house, a man who was a complete stranger to him. It didn’t take long to realize why his mother had never taken Levi to meet him.

Mikasa’s situation had been different. Levi had just turned twenty two when he’d gotten the call from Child Services informing him that he was Mikasa’s only living relative and she had nowhere else to go. Ultimately, that hadn’t been true. He’d gone to the funeral to meet her, but upon introducing himself, she politely but firmly told him that she would not be coming to live with him. At the time, it had been a relief. She ended up being adopted by some family friends and Levi never saw her again, put her out of his mind completely.

 _Mikasa._ Could it really be the same girl?

If she was, he felt mildly ashamed that he’d never checked up on her. What if the family had been abusive? What if they didn’t give her enough attention? What if she had gotten into drugs, joined a gang, or gotten pregnant as a teenager? He’d been a self-involved little shit at twenty two with plenty of his own problems, but that wasn’t much of an excuse. He could have stepped up. He could have done a lot of things.

He followed a couple paces behind the two men as they left the bathroom and headed towards the booths in the back, anxiety gnawing at his stomach. Mikasa wasn’t a common name, but that didn’t mean that the Mikasa in this bar was undoubtedly her. It was a long shot, probably – Levi had moved here when he was still married to Erwin, his then-husband having just gotten a promotion that placed them on the other side of the country. The Mikasa he had known, however briefly, was probably still on the opposite coast.

Levi stopped in his tracks when he saw Armin and Jean slid into a booth, holding his breath. They were sitting across from someone with dark hair and a red scarf hanging haphazardly off their shoulders, but Levi could only see the back of their head.

This was ridiculous and he knew it, but it was too late now. He had to know for sure, one way or the other. As he tried to determine a route he could take that would allow him to inconspicuously walk around the other side, however, he found himself inadvertently making eye contact with the blonde man from earlier.

Armin frowned slightly and Levi quickly looked away, but it was too late. He could feel the other man, Jean, staring at him too. He was standing in the middle of a bar after following two complete strangers out of the bathroom back to their booth, of course they were staring at him. They probably thought he was some old creep, prowling the bar for a young hook-up.

_Dammit, dammit, dammit._

They were whispering across the table now. He turned to pivot on his foot and leave when their dark-haired companion turned around in her seat, her eyes narrowed.

It was undoubtedly her. Her hair was shorter than he remembered and she had a pretty extensive sleeve of Japanese-style tattoos decorating her right arm, but save for that and the loss of some baby fat in her cheeks, she looked exactly the same. Levi would have expected more frown lines like his own, but there were none to be found. Maybe life had been kinder to her than it had been to Levi, despite what happened to her parents. If that was the case, he was glad.

He stepped forward, clearing his throat.

“Hi,” he started, feeling incredibly awkward as the table openly stared at him with thinly veiled scrutinization. He did his best not to show his discomfort. “This is gonna sound weird, but –”

“Levi,” Mikasa said. It was an observation, not a question. He saw the recognition in her eyes and exhaled, relieved.

“Yeah.”

“You know this guy?” Jean eyed him skeptically.

“He’s my cousin,” Mikasa acknowledged, eyeing him up. He wondered if he looked different than he had back then. “On my father’s side, right?”

Levi nodded. He'd never actually met the man, wouldn't recognize him any easier than he'd recognize his own father.

“Your birth father?” Armin asked, eyes wide.

"Look, I don't want to interrupt, so-" Levi reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet and Mikasa visibly bristled, her body tensing.

“I don’t need money.”

“I wasn’t going to offer you any,” Levi said brusquely, handing her his business card. For a moment, he worried that he had come across too harsh, but Mikasa’s body language had relaxed and she was no longer frowning.

“My cellphone number is on there, if you ever want to…catch up.”

His mouth couldn't form the words he meant to say. _Sorry I never checked up on you._

“I have a daughter too, if you wanted to meet her,” he continued. “She’s always asking why all her relatives are on her other dad’s side. You could come over for dinner sometime, or we could go out…whatever you want.”

“I’ll think about it,” Mikasa replied quietly, running her thumb over the raised lettering of his business card. Armin was still staring at him with unadulterated surprise, whereas Jean just looked suspicious. He didn’t blame them, he’d probably be suspicious too. The whole situation was weird and Levi had never been the best and dispersing tension; he’d always left that to Erwin.

“Right,” Levi said, pocketing his wallet again. He stood in awkward silence for another couple of seconds before speaking again. “Well, my friend is waiting for me at the bar so…I'll see you around."

He turned to leave, feeling vaguely embarrassed and regretful that he'd come over here in the first place when Mikasa grabbed his wrist.

"Levi," she said, meeting his gaze. "It was good to see you."

His shoulders sagged with relief. He almost smiled.

"Yeah. You too."


	6. Chapter 6

At this point in his career as a father, Levi was almost positive he could make Kraft mac n’ cheese in his sleep. It hadn’t come easy -- at first, the squishing sound it made as the milk and cheese were stirred in had been enough to make his skin crawl. Having a picky eater for a daughter, however, forced him to get over it within the first couple months of her eating solid foods. It also didn’t hurt that when all was said and done, pouring noodles and powdered cheese into a pot of water was at least a meal Levi could manage to not utterly fuck up.

Isabel sat at the kitchen table, her tongue sticking out in concentration every now and again when she reached a particularly difficult math problem on her homework. She told him about her day between questions as he “cooked” dinner: how Farlan had apologized and they were friends again, how her class was starting to learn multiplication tables, what she played during recess. He smiled to himself. At least Isabel had apparently picked up her socializing skills from Erwin.

He resisted the urge to ask her about a certain first grade teacher.

Turning off the burner, he told Isabel to wash her hands and scraped the contents of the pot into two bowls. He was just setting them down on the table when his phone vibrated insistently in his back pocket and he reached for it with an irritable sigh, motioning for Isabel to sit down and start eating without him.

He swiped his thumb across phone screen and held it up to his ear.

“Ackerman.”

“Levi. It’s Mikasa.”

“Oh. Hi,” he said artlessly, switching his phone to his other ear. He mouthed an apology to his daughter, hurrying into the other room and closing the door behind him. “Sorry, we were just sitting down for dinner.”

“Oh. Sorry for calling so late.”

“No, it’s okay,” he said quickly. “I’m – I’m glad you called.”

A long pause followed, too long, and for a moment, Levi thought the connection had been lost. But finally, Mikasa spoke.

“I was thinking about what you said the other night.” Another pause. “I wouldn’t be opposed to getting coffee sometime, if the offer still stands.”

“Yeah, of course,” Levi replied, surprised. “When are you free?”

“Tomorrow works, if that’s okay with you. You know the place on the corner of Maple and Broadway?”

“Yeah, I know it.” He and Erwin used to get brunch there pretty frequently back when they were still married. “One o’clock?”

“One o’clock.”

She promptly hung up, leaving Levi to wonder if a disinterest in social niceties ran in their family. He chewed his lip, tapping his phone against his palm a few times before thumbing the first number he had on speed dial. 

“Levi, your ears must have been burning. We were just talking about you.”

“Don’t do that,” he grumbled, rubbing his free hand over his undercut. “You busy tomorrow?”

“Not particularly, why?”

“I know it’s my turn to have Isabel for the weekend, but can I drop her off at your place for an hour or two tomorrow?”

“Do you have a _date_?” Erwin asked, his voice laced with amusement.

“Not the kind you’re thinking of.” Levi paused, wetting his lips as he contemplated whether he wanted to elaborate or not. “I’m meeting my cousin.”

Erwin’s playful tone changed immediately. “You have a cousin?

“She’s my second cousin, technically,” Levi said. “It’s complicated. So can I drop her off?”

“Yeah, of course.” He knew it was taking all Erwin’s will power not to grill him then and there and he was grateful for the restraint. It wasn’t something he was ready to get into yet, especially if his meeting with Mikasa amounted to nothing. He didn’t want to have any expectations. 

“Are you sure you want to go alone?” Erwin asked quietly, his words holding more weight than Levi wanted them to.

“It’s my cousin, Erwin, not some creep from the internet.”

“Okay, okay,” his ex-husband conceded. “But let me know how it goes.”

Levi hung up after that, tucking his phone back into his pocket and re-entering the kitchen. “Sorry, Iz,” he sighed, sliding into the chair next to her and shoveling a forkful of macaroni into his mouth. It was already cold.

“It’s okay,” she said as she struggled to get an adequate amount of macaroni on her fork. By now, her bowl was empty save for a few stray noodles. “Was it daddy who called?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re lying,” Isabel said, scrunching up her nose in disapproval. “That’s not the voice you use when you talk to daddy.”

“Jeez, when did you start getting so perceptive?” Levi said with a fond smile; he couldn’t help but to be a little proud. However, he still wasn’t sure he wanted to tell her about Mikasa just yet, for the same reason he didn’t want to talk to Erwin about it. “Regardless, you’ll be hanging out with him and Mike for a few hours tomorrow, okay?”

“Mmkay.” He could tell she was disappointed, as Saturdays were usually when he or Erwin liked to take her to do something fun – but he would make it up to her. He ruffled the top of her hair.

“Good girl.”

  


* * *

  


Even after dropping Isabel off at Erwin’s, he was still ten minutes early to meet Mikasa and he found himself at a loss for what to do while he waited for her. Frankly, he was never sure what to do in these situations -- was it rude to order his drink and sit down before she arrived? Should he wait in the car until he saw her? 

In the end, he opted to stand just outside of the café and re-read some of his work e-mails on his phone, looking up more often than not and comforting himself with the tap-tap-tap of his boot on the sidewalk.

When he saw her approaching, he glanced at the time on his phone. One o’clock, on the dot. She was wearing the same scarf she had been wearing that night at the bar, only this time it was unwrapped and hanging loosely from her shoulders. Since she had opted to wear shorts, it was plain to see that she was more tattooed than he had originally thought – her legs were covered in thousands of dollars worth of bright ink, so much so that it was almost impossible to determine where one tattoo ended and another began.

“Hey,” she said, brushing past him to enter the café. He blinked in surprise and followed suit.

“Do you come here often?” he asked, for lack of anything better to say while they waited in line.

She shrugged. “Sometimes.”

After telling the barista their orders – espresso for Mikasa, black tea for Levi – they migrated towards an empty table in the back, next to a window.

“So…” he started, hoping she would pick up the conversation. When she didn’t and looked at him expectantly instead, he forced himself to continue.

“You have a lot of tattoos, huh?”

“I guess,” Mikasa replied, picking at a groove in the wooden table’s surface. Her brow furrowed as if she were frustrated and he couldn’t tell if it was because of something he said or something else.

“I’m a tattoo artist, “ she continued without looking up. “So it kind of comes with the territory.”

Levi made a noise of acknowledgement, nodding his head. He didn’t know anything about tattoos, but he could respect the trade. “That’s impressive.”

“Not really,” she shrugged. “You work in construction, right? That’s what it said on your card.”

“Yeah. Not as interesting as being a tattoo artist, but it pays the bills.”

They were briefly interrupted when the barista brought them their drinks, still steaming. Levi wrapped his hands around his mug, feeling its warmth. It was already mid-autumn, but the temperature outside had yet to drop. As a result, the shop was mostly empty; hot drinks weren’t typically popular when the weather was warm, especially on a weekend. He couldn’t help but to feel relieved.

“Tattooing isn’t that interesting either,” Mikasa said, taking a sip of her espresso. Her tone didn’t change, so Levi had a hard time deciphering whether she was just stating a fact or felt like she had to console him. She didn’t; Levi was perfectly happy with his boring job.

“Most of the people who come in want something small, like a nautical star or an infinity symbol…those days are pretty boring.”

“You like doing it though, right?” Levi asked, sampling his tea. 

Mikasa nodded, and Levi thought he saw a shadow of a smile on her face. “Yeah.”

They drank quietly for a couple moments, staring out the window at the ambling pedestrians. It wasn’t necessarily a comfortable silence, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable one either.

“Mikasa,” Levi said finally, meeting her eyes. “I probably don’t have the right to ask this but...after your parents died, were you okay, going with that family?”

Mikasa blinked a couple times, perplexed. “Of course.”

He sighed with relief and Mikasa’s eyes seemed to soften with understanding as she hesitantly reached across the table to rest her palm on top of his closed fist. She looked determined almost, resolute.

“They took very good care of me. I was never left wanting for anything,” she said, retracting her hand. “You did the right thing.”

“I still could’ve checked up on you,” Levi said. “I was such a jackass --”

“I didn’t even know you. You didn’t know me. I never expected anything from you,” Mikasa replied firmly. “You were just some stranger who came to my parents’ funeral, nothing more. Blood doesn’t mean anything to me. My family is my family.”

He understood. Isabel, after all, wasn’t related to him by blood but he loved her fiercely, would do anything for her. The same was true for Erwin.

He relaxed back into his chair, nodding. “I get that. But if that’s the case, why did you agree to meet with me?”

“Why did you?” Mikasa shot back, her gaze sharp. When she realized Levi wasn’t trying to imply anything and was genuinely asking, she exhaled, taking another sip of her drink.

“My adoptive mother passed away a few years ago,” she explained. “And my adoptive father was never the same after. He checks in every now and again, but my brother and I rarely see him. My brother…” she said, playing with the fringe on the end of her scarf. “My brother is everything to me. He’s the only family I have.” She frowned as she tried to find the words. “It’s not that he’s not enough, but I just thought…”

“It might be nice to have more,” Levi finished, meeting her gaze. “I know the feeling.”

They fell into another silence and didn’t speak again until they could see the bottom of their mugs. Levi idly thought the leaves at the bottom of his cup looked like an arch of some kind.* At that point, the afternoon sun was glaring through the window, bright enough that he found himself squinting when he looked at his cousin. It would be time to get Isabel soon.

“If the offer still stands, I would like to meet your daughter,” Mikasa said quietly.

“Sure, come over for dinner this week. I can’t cook for shit, but I can order takeout,” Levi said with a wry smile.

“I like takeout,” Mikasa replied with a small smile of her own. “Would it be okay if I brought my brother too? He wanted to come today, but I told him not to since...I didn’t really know what to expect. He wants to meet you though.”

“No problem,” Levi said, leaning back in his chair. “He’s not going to try to kick my ass or anything, right?”

She laughed and Levi watched her in quiet amazement. The sound reminded him of his mother’s laugh even though he hadn’t heard it in decades. His eyes prickled, briefly, and he smiled a little wider, feeling whole. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * In tea leaf divination, an arch symbolizes “things which you desire are developing in the wished-for direction; the arch is a sign of hope; your ambition may be gratified in a most unexpected manner." ([source](http://www.divinationbytealeaves.com/a-dictionary-of-symbols-a.htm))
> 
> If you happen to mention this story (or any of my stories, really) on tumblr, please tag me (nachoheichou)! I'd love to see :')


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You all know what happens in this chapter, right? O:)

Erwin watched with thinly veiled amusement as Levi grunted with exertion, scrubbing the counter for the third time since Erwin had arrived.

“Better hurry, you only have –“ He made a show of checking his watch, eyebrows raised. “Ten hours before they arrive.”

“Shut up,” Levi mumbled, wiping his brow with his forearm. “If you’re just gonna make smart ass comments, the least you can do is put on some gloves and help me.”

“What’s the point? You’d just end up re-doing it,” Erwin said, leaning against the counter. He was right, but Levi would be damned if he was going to give Erwin the satisfaction of admitting it. “You’re sure you don’t want me to come tonight? I could cook.”

“We’re getting take out,” Levi replied definitively, shooting his ex-husband a look. He loved Erwin, he really did, but he was undoubtedly a show-stealer. The last thing he needed was Mikasa wishing Erwin was her cousin instead. “You can help Isabel pick out an outfit though since you’re so eager to help – preferably one that doesn’t involve her heelies.”

“Sure, give me the hard job,” Erwin said with a smirk. He was enjoying this way too much and Levi kind of wanted to shove him down the garbage disposal. He finally disappeared up the steps to find their daughter after a few more jokes at Levi’s expense, leaving Levi alone with his thoughts and the thick but comforting miasma of bleach.

Isabel had been delighted - ecstatic, even - when Levi had explained to her that a cousin he hadn’t seen in a very long time would be coming over for dinner with her brother. He just hoped Mikasa was okay with kids. More specifically, his kid, who wasn’t just _a_ handful -- she was two.

He really wanted tonight to go perfectly. He doubted it would, considering he had the social skills of a hamster and his half decade of fatherhood had taught him that nothing was ever perfect when a six year old was involved, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t do everything in his power to make sure the night went as smoothly as possible.

He adjusted his face mask, deciding that the kitchen counter was finally up to his standards of cleanliness and reaching for the mop he had left propped up against the wall.

Erwin’s calculations had been wrong. He only had nine hours before his guests would arrive.

 

* * *

 

At the sound of a staccato knock on the door, Levi wiped his palms on the back of his jeans, heaving a large sigh and counting his strides to the door in an effort to quell his uneasiness.

Mikasa wouldn’t have asked to meet Isabel if she didn’t want to Levi to be in her life, right? And Isabel wore everyone down eventually, usually sooner than later. He’d ordered a pizza and the house was so clean that he could probably perform surgery on his kitchen counter if he were so inclined. So really, the only dubious part of the evening would be meeting Mikasa’s brother.

Levi doubted Mikasa’s brother was going to be an asshole, as his cousin didn’t seem like the kind of person to put up with anyone’s shit. He liked that about her. Plus, Levi spent most of his day around foul-mouthed construction workers, so the chances of being surprised or offended by anything her brother did or said was pretty slim. There was nothing for him to be anxious about, he thought, steeling himself in the front entrance.

After opening the door, he stood corrected.

At first, he was confused. Why was Eren standing on his front step holding a six pack? Was he having some kind of stress-induced hallucination? But he looked just as surprised as Levi was and Mikasa was next to him, restlessly shifting her weight from one foot to the other.

“Sorry we’re early,” she said, taking the six-pack from Eren and holding it out to Levi. “I didn’t know what to bring, so…”

“You didn’t need to bring anything,” Levi replied, accepting the beer anyway. He looked at Eren briefly but averted his gaze when their eyes met. “But thanks.”

“Um.” Mikasa put her hand on Eren’s shoulder. “So Eren, this is Levi. And Levi, this is --”

“Eren!” Isabel exclaimed, bounding out the door to meet her new family. She wasn’t wearing her heelies, thank god, but Levi didn’t know if mismatched socks and crocs could be considered an improvement. “What are you doing here!”

It was Mikasa’s turn to look confused. She turned towards her brother with a furrowed brow but Eren was too busy looking at Levi to notice.

“I didn’t make the connection,” he said with a stunned expression.

The words seemed more like a thought being expressed aloud rather than directed at anyone in particular. Levi suddenly realized why the name “Jaeger” had sounded familiar.

Jesus, he was an idiot.

“You know each other?” Mikasa asked, eyes flicking between them. There was a lump in Levi’s throat preventing him from answering but luckily, Eren appeared to have it under control.

“Isabel is one of my students,” he explained, smiling down at the girl who was currently bouncing on the balls of her feet. Apparently he had already recovered from the shock and was now redirecting his attention to Levi’s daughter. “I like your shoes, by the way.”

Isabel beamed, taking his hand. “Come in, come in!”

She dragged Eren inside and Levi waited for Mikasa to follow before closing the door behind them.

So much for his perfect evening.

“Isabel, hang on a second -- remember the cousin I was telling you about? This is Mikasa,” Levi said, gesturing towards her.

“Hello,” Mikasa said quietly. She was just as reticent as he was, but Levi had an inkling she was nervous. Maybe she wasn’t used to being around children like her brother was.

“Hello,” Isabel repeated, smiling politely before returning her attention to Eren. She tugged him down their hallway, babbling excitedly -- it looked like she was set on giving him the whole tour.

Mikasa pressed her lips together, eyes downcast.

Levi pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed for the umteenth time that day.

Well, this was going to be fun.

 

* * *

 

Isabel had not stopped firing questions at Eren since they sat down. Mikasa looked vaguely overwhelmed and Eren kept glancing apologetically in her direction, but other than that, he didn’t seem bothered. Ultimately, Levi wasn’t bothered by it either, save for the fact that Mikasa appeared uncomfortable -- or disappointed, maybe, that the questions weren't directed at her. But he couldn't ignore the fact that he'd learned more about Eren in the last hour than he had since he’d met the young teacher, all thanks to his motor mouth daughter and her ceaseless question to know Everything about their surprise guest.

Mentally, he grimaced. It was probably terrible for him to enjoy learning about the other man, now that he and Eren were somewhat related. Not blood related, of course, and Mikasa _was_ his second cousin...but those were dangerous thoughts, ones that should be banished to the recesses of his mind and never addressed again. This was supposed to be about Isabel meeting Mikasa, not pining over someone could now be considered a (distant) relative.

Still, he knew quite a lot about Eren now. For instance, Eren was currently sleeping on his sister’s couch because of his meager substitute teaching salary. It was hard to find a job as a teacher when one had a couple of arrests on file, apparently, and the only reason he had gotten the job he had now was because his father had been able to pull a few strings. Eren was pretty bitter about this if his clenched fist was any indication, but a job was a job.

“You were arrested?” Isabel asked around her mouthful of pizza, eyes wide. “I thought only bad people get arrested.”

“I was protesting.” Upon realizing the word was definitely not yet integrated into Isabel’s vocabulary, Eren rephrased. “I was loudly arguing with some bad people in public and the police didn’t like it.”

“Yeah, if you can call making out with Jean in front of that baptist church ‘loudly arguing’, then sure, that’s what you got arrested for,” Mikasa deadpanned, taking another bite of her pizza. Eren flushed and Levi found himself thinking that it might be the sweetest thing he had ever witnessed.

He also couldn’t help but to notice that Jean was undoubtedly a boy’s name.

“Hey, marriage may be an outdated concept but I still want to have the option to be on my future husband’s health care plan,” Eren shot back, though it was more of a defeated grumble. “Thank you very much.”

“Making out?” Isabel asked, scrunching her nose and looking up at her father.

“Kissing,” Levi clarified. “A lot.”

“Oh. My other dad makes out with Mike sometimes,” she offered helpfully, smiling in Eren’s direction.

“I’m gonna kill them,” Levi muttered, and Eren laughed hard enough to shake the table. Mikasa shifted in her seat, looking between the two of them and Levi realized that she was the only one at the table who didn’t know about Erwin.

“I’m divorced,” he explained, not wanting her to feel left out. “Mike is my ex-husband’s boyfriend.”

“Ah.” She cast a sidelong glance at Isabel, who was happily munching on her second slice of pizza. “Sorry.”

Levi shrugged. “Don’t be. We’re still a family, even if we’re not married anymore.”

“Erwin and Levi are probably the most amicable divorced parents I’ve ever met,” Eren chimed in, helping himself to another slice. He smiled at Levi. “It’s really amazing.”

Levi could feel the tops of his ears growing warm and he coughed, putting extra effort into cutting his slice of pizza into easy-to-spear squares. “What about you?” he asked, nodding to Mikasa. “Boyfriend? Girlfriend?”

It was Mikasa’s turn to shrug. “Nothing that serious. Besides, it’s kind of hard to date when your brother is camped out in your living room.”

“Whatever, you love having me as an excuse to not have people over,” Eren said, waving his pizza slice at her accusingly.

“Like you don’t do the same thing,” Mikasa replied with pursed lips, rolling her eyes.

So Eren was single. _That_ was a tidbit of information Levi probably would’ve been better off not knowing.

 

* * *

 

Levi scrubbed the plate in his hand a little harder than necessary, watching the sponge in his hand turn red with leftover tomato sauce. He was grateful for the moment to himself. Mikasa, Eren, and Isabel were playing cards in the living room, as he had insisted that he could clean up on his own. They were the guests, he had said, and he had made sure they were settled before he retreated into the kitchen.

In actuality, he just needed some time alone to process everything that had happened.

Dinner had been a success in his book. Sure, Isabel had talked Eren’s ear off for the entirety of the meal and yes, he wished she had paid a little more attention to Mikasa but ultimately, it had gone as well as he could have expected. The more time he spent with his cousin, the more he realized how alike they were. It was comforting, like seeing a friend for the first time in years and being able to pick up where you left off.

It was also similar to being doused with cold water. Levi doubted Eren would ever want to date someone with the same personality as his sister. Not that he had felt like he had much of a shot in the first place, but if this wasn’t a sign from the universe to give up on the notion of dating his daughter’s first grade teacher, he didn’t know what was.

When one door opened, another one closed -- or something like that.

Levi felt a hand on his shoulder and he visibly startled, dropping the plate in the sink with a clatter.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” Eren said, sliding over so that he was next to him instead of behind him. He smiled sheepishly. “I know you said you didn’t need help, but I want to. Is that okay?”

Levi glanced in the direction of the living room. “Is Mikasa going to be okay spending time alone with Isabel?”

“She’ll be fine,” Eren answered, picking up a cloth. He spoke with such finality that Levi believed him and they fell into an easy, quiet rhythm after that. Levi washed, Eren dried. Occasionally their hands would brush but instead of feeling warm fuzzies or butterflies, Levi just felt hollow. There was an ache in his chest he couldn’t ignore, no matter how much he wanted to.

“This is weird, huh?” Eren said after a couple minutes, taking another dish from Levi’s hands. “I probably should have put two and two together. I mean, Ackerman isn’t really that common of a surname.”

“Neither is Jaeger,” Levi replied, reaching for the cutlery at the bottom of the sink. “I thought I had heard your name somewhere before, I just couldn’t remember where.”

“Guess we’re both pretty bad at noticing details like that,” Eren concluded with a wry smile.

“Mm.”

Levi heard giggling in the living room that was unmistakably Isabel’s and found himself sighing with relief. At least something tonight was turning out okay.

“She’s better with kids than she think she is,” Eren said as he dried a fork with more care than necessary. Levi wondered if his concern for his cousin had really been that transparent. “I knew if she had a few minutes alone with Isabel, she’d win her over.”

“That’s good. I want them to get - shit!” Levi cursed, dropping the knife he’d been washing as red began to ooze from the fresh slash his thumb. He grimaced as he shoved it under the cool spray of his kitchen faucet, more annoyed than anything else.

“First aid kit?” Eren asked and Levi gestured to the cabinet under the sink. He retrieved the case and set it on the counter, opening the lid to view its contents.

“Here, let me see it,” Eren said, pulling out the hydrogen peroxide and a small piece of guaze. Levi shook his head.

“I can do it myself, it’s fine. It’s just a small cut.”

“Let me see it,” Eren reiterated firmly.

Levi rolled his eyes, turning off the faucet and extending his hand for Eren to examine. Eren cupped his hand in his own; his skin was warm and surprisingly soft, unlike Levi’s which were rough and calloused from his years working in construction. He pressed his lips together as Eren gently examined his thumb, using his free hand to dab the piece of gauze in the hydrogen peroxide and carefully apply it to Levi’s cut to soak up any leftover blood. It stung briefly but Levi’s attention was elsewhere; he couldn’t look away from Eren’s face -- the way the tip of his tongue stuck out of the corner of his mouth and his brow furrowed, dedicating all his focus to this small cut on Levi’s thumb.

“Am I going to live, doctor?” Levi asked in an attempt to disperse some of the tension he felt. Eren met his gaze and grinned.

“It was touch-and-go there for a minute but God willing, I think you’ll be okay.”

As Eren wrapped a band aid around the injured digit, Levi suddenly realized just how close Eren’s face was to his own. He could see the flecks of yellow in his irises, the freckles on his nose. His lips looked dry but not chapped and he was worrying his bottom lip, looking down at Levi as he did so. His brow creased when Levi’s eyes met his own.

“Hey, Levi --”

“Dad! Dad! Look!”

Levi immediately broke their gaze, taking a step back just as Isabel barged into the kitchen, dragging Mikasa into the kitchen by her wrist. The cardigan his cousin had been wearing had been discarded and Isabel was pointing enthusiastically at Mikasa’s tattoos. “She has permanent pictures on her arms!”

Mikasa looked mildly embarrassed but pleased, smiling slightly when she made eye contact with Levi. Her gaze momentarily lingered where Eren’s hand was still holding Levi’s and Levi quickly pulled his hand away, letting it hang by his side. If she noticed anything strange, she didn’t say anything about it and for that, Levi was grateful.

“I want one!” Isabel exclaimed, drawing Levi’s attention back to his daughter.

“When you’re eighteen, you can get as many as you want,” Levi replied with a small smile of his own, nudging the first aid kit out of sight. He didn't want Isabel to worry. “They hurt though, you know. It’s like getting a shot at the doctor’s, only worse.”

“Is that true?” Isabel asked, turning to look at Mikasa with wide eyes. Mikasa shrugged and nodded.

“Is that why you don’t have any, Dad?”

A quiet laugh escaped Mikasa’s lips and she covered her mouth, undoubtedly to hide a smirk. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Eren’s shoulders shaking slightly. He rolled his eyes.

“They’re expensive,” Levi replied, assuming that would end the conversation.

Unfortunately for him, it didn’t.

“I’d be happy to give you one free of charge,” Mikasa offered, lowering her hand so Levi could see that her smirk had progressed to an impish grin. "A thank you gift of sorts." Isabel squeaked with delight, clapping.

“Hey you, don’t get excited,” Levi chided, crossing his arms. “I don’t even know what I would get. I don’t even want one!”

“There’s a ton of flash at the shop,” Mikasa suggested. Levi gave her a disapproving look but it didn’t deter his cousin in the slightest. “I’m sure Isabel would be happy to pick something out for you.”

At this point, Isabel was practically vibrating with excitement.

“Yeah, right. The last thing I need is a unicorn on my ass,” he deadpanned, handing his daughter a quarter. Isabel happily dropped it in the nearly full jar on the counter and Mikasa watched the exchange with a warm expression that, in turn, warmed Levi as well.

The business card she slipped into his hand with the address of the shop she worked at, however, was less heart-warming.

When it was time for his new family to leave, Mikasa hugged him goodbye. It was quick -- too quick for Levi to return the hug -- and stiff, but it was a hug nonetheless and Levi understood what his cousin was trying to convey. Eren’s hugged him as well, a quick but firm squeeze that was indicative of his experience. Eren was clearly a regular hugger while comparatively, Levi was sure Eren felt like he was hugging a brick wall.

Hell, a brick wall probably had more appeal.

Later that night, Levi laid in bed, watching the headlights from passing cars move across his ceiling. He ran his finger over the smooth texture of the band aid on his thumb and thought of Eren’s hands, warm and gentle, cupping his own. His chest pressed against Levi’s, briefly, arms caging him in an embrace.

Whatever minute chance he had with Eren romantically was gone now, he knew that. But it wasn’t like he was left with nothing. He still had Isabel and Erwin, and now he had Mikasa. And Eren would be in his life a lot longer now, even if it wasn’t in a romantic sense. _‘That’s enough,’_ he thought as his heart clenched traitorously in his chest.

He listened to the faint sound of Isabel’s soft snores in the next room over and matched his breathing to hers, closing his eyes. _'It's enough,'_ he repeated to himself in his head, pulling the covers up to his chin.

_It has to be._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Your kudos and comments and bookmark tags make me feel so loved. You can also hit me up on [tumblr](http://nachoheichou.tumblr.com)!


	8. Chapter 8

The sun was unforgiving as Levi studied the blueprint spread before him, wiping the sweat from his brow with the bandana he kept tucked in the back pocket of his work jeans. It was nearing the end of autumn and yet it still felt like the height of summer; the air was thick and heavy, settling uncomfortably on his skin like a film. He was already counting the hours until he could go home and shower.

The weather had been piss poor for the past couple days, all torrential downpours and strong winds, and his crew was struggling to make up for the time they had lost. In his line of work, setbacks were not unusual; they were, however, incredibly irritating, as they almost always indicated that Levi could expect a shit storm from the client as soon as they got word. He was not looking forward to tomorrow’s meeting in the slightest.

It appeared nothing intended to go Levi’s way these days. He glanced at the band aid on his thumb before pulling his phone from his pocket and checking the time.

Noon had come and gone and they were all due for a much-needed break. He rolled up the blueprint and let his crew know they could stop for lunch before heading over to his car to do the same. He normally ate with his crew, but it was just too damn hot and Levi was looking forward to his car’s air conditioning way more than the lackluster lunch he had made for himself that morning.

The last thing he expected to see when he reached the parking lot was Erwin leaning against his modest Ford Focus talking to Hange, who was holding a plastic bag that sagged with the weight of its contents. Once he was closer, he could tell from the smell that the bag undoubtedly contained take-out, probably subs from the sandwich shop down the street -- his favorite. Still, Levi prided himself on not being easily swayed and it didn’t take a genius to figure out why the two of them were here.

“Don’t you two have work?” he deadpanned, unlocking his car with his key fob.

“We do. But we also have lunch breaks,” Erwin smiled, blocking the driver’s side door. He crossed his arms over his chest. “And you’ve been avoiding us.”

“I have not,” Levi grumbled, gesturing for Erwin to move out of the way. His ex-husband didn’t budge, fixing him with a skeptical look.

“Oh, really? Is that why you’ve been dropping Isabel off at the edge of my lawn and speeding off without saying hello?”

Levi huffed irritably. “I wasn’t speeding. I’ve just been busy.”

“Too busy to reply to texts?” Hange asked, raising their eyebrows. “You usually reply to at least one or two of them to let me know you’re alive.”

“If I was dead, I’m sure Erwin would let you know,” Levi replied dryly, giving his ex-husband a firm nudge with his shoulder so that he could grab the door handle. Erwin allowed himself to be moved, stepping to the side.

“What’s going on, Levi?” Erwin asked gently. “How did the dinner go?”

“Fine. It was fine,” Levi said, waving him off. When his friends’ pointed gazes didn’t show any sign of letting up, he sighed, releasing the handle. His next few sentences came out in an irritated rush.

“We ordered pizza. Mikasa met Isabel. Eren is my second cousin. Isabel is already conspiring with Mikasa. They –“

“Woah, woah, woah – back up, champ,” Hange said, cutting him off. “Eren is what now?”

“Eren is Mikasa’s brother,” he explained with a perfectly neutral expression. “Which makes him my second cousin twice removed, or something. I didn’t want to tell you because I knew you’d make a big deal out of it and it’s not.”

Erwin exhaled, running his hand over his face.

“Get in the car. It’s too hot to have a conversation like this outside.” He walked around to the passenger’s side, opening the door. Hange shoved the bag into Levi’s arms before sliding into the backseat, making themselves comfortable.

“And start from the beginning,” they added.

 

* * *

 

As Levi had expected, the bag did contain subs from his favorite sandwich shop. He took out the wrapped sub with an L written on it, his stomach growling in anticipation. He paid no mind to his friends’ impatient stares as he peeled away the wax paper and took a large bite of his sandwich, savoring the unmistakable taste of fresh bread and thinly sliced deli meat.

Erwin cleared his throat and Levi, swallowing, rolled his eyes.

“I don’t understand what you need me to spell out for you,” he said, wiping a stray crumb from the corner of his mouth. “Mikasa wanted me to meet her brother and her brother happened to be Eren. It’s really that simple.”

“I take it Isabel was thrilled,” Erwin said and Levi nodded, swallowing another bite of his sandwich before replying.

“Of course she was, she thinks that guy shits rainbows. She spent the first half hour introducing Eren to her whole stuffed animal collection.”

Hange made a contemplative noise, taking the plastic bag from Levi and fishing out their own sandwich. It reeked of tuna and a combination of condiments that he didn’t even want to think about eating together but his friend obviously felt differently, chomping into their sandwich without a second thought.

“I think you’re looking at this the wrong way,” Hange said through a mouthful of tuna. Levi grimaced at the sight. “I mean, it’s not like you and Isabel are actually _blood_ -related to Eren.”

“Can you at least masticate your food before stating the obvious?” he replied, tossing a napkin in her direction. It fluttered pathetically onto the backseat, quickly forgotten.

“I mean, I get why you’d be upset initially --”

“I’m not upset --”

“But at the end of the day, since you’re not blood-related to him --”

“Hange --”

“And because Mikasa isn’t even your first cousin, which even if she was, it’s not like you and Eren would be breeding --”

“ _Hange_ ,” Levi said, his tone laced with finality. “Enough. I’m not doing that to Mikasa. It’s done.”

Hange took another bite of their sandwich and Levi was pretty sure they were chewing with their mouth open out of spite.

“You think Mikasa would disapprove?” Erwin asked. Levi pursed his lips.

“I don’t want to put her in the position of having to approve or disapprove in the first place.”

“In other words, you don’t know how she’d react.”

Levi exhaled sharply. “You’re right, Erwin, I don’t know -- I’ve literally seen her twice since I met her when she was _ten_ ,” he replied, throwing a hand up in annoyance. “Eren is -- _was_ a dumb crush, a daydream. But Mikasa is family and by extension, Eren is family now too. Just drop it already.”

As if on cue, Levi’s phone vibrated in his pocket. He didn’t know who would be texting him when the two likeliest candidates were currently ambushing him in his car, but when he checked the screen, Mikasa’s name was on the display.

“Who is it?” Hange asked, leaning nosily over the center console. Their eyes widened in surprise when they caught sight of the notification on Levi’s lock screen. “Wow, think her ears were burning?”

Erwin looked thoughtful but remained silent, his eyes trained on his ex-husband. Levi ignored them both, eyes skimming over the message.

_M: Sorry to bother you at work. Think you could stop by the shop on your way home? I want to show you something._

Levi frowned, perplexed. He slid his thumb across the screen and punched in his password before tapping out a reply.

_L: I can, but I’ll probably reek. You’re not planning to strap me down to a table and give me that unicorn, are you?_

_M: You should be so lucky. I’ll send you the address in case you lost my card._

“Everything okay?” Erwin asked.

“Yeah. She just wants me to swing by where she works before I go home,” he said, sliding his phone back into his pocket.

“Why?”

“Fuck if I know. I’ll just stop by on my way to pick up Isabel,” Levi shrugged, casting a glance in Hange’s direction. They were biting their lip and wiggling in their seat, clearly trying to refrain from blurting out what they really wanted to. Levi sighed. “Out with it, glasses.”

“What’s this about a unicorn?”

 

* * *

  
The shop was easy enough to find. It was in a shopping center not twenty minutes from Isabel’s school, tucked in between a real estate office and a discount furniture store. The sign above the glass doors said “TATTOO” in large, blocky font, with a “yes, we card” sticker glued to the window. He hadn’t known what to expect and a part of him was relieved to see that, from the outside at least, the shop looked pretty straightforward. And it wasn’t in a sketchy neighborhood, which he admittedly had expected. When he opened the door, a bell chimed and he took a tentative step inside.

Taking in his surroundings, he realized he was standing in what looked like a waiting area, with couches pushed against the wall and low tables stacked with binders. Motley Crew was playing at a low volume and frames filled with what he could only assume were potential tattoos took up nearly every inch of the walls. In the middle of it all was a front desk and a blonde girl with a distinctive nose and what looked like a perpetual frown sat behind it, popping her gum and flipping to the next page of the magazine she was reading. Her eyes briefly flicked up to Levi before returning to the page she had open.

“Do you have an appointment?” she asked in a bored drawl, eyes skimming over the page in front of her.

“Mikasa asked me to meet her here,” he replied, trying not to be distracted by the amount of metal in the girl’s face.

The girl looked up again, tonguing her lip piercing as she took him in. Levi wasn’t even sure she was aware she was doing it.

“You’re Levi?” She said, sounding curious but not surprised. She gestured to the area behind her.

“Just go on back. Her station is the last door on your left.”

He muttered a quick thank you and moved past her, thankful that the interaction had come to a close.

The shop wasn’t very large; Levi only passed two rooms before he reached the one that the girl at the front desk had said was Mikasa’s. He could hear people taking in the other rooms and a faint buzzing sound, but no noise seemed to emit from Mikasa’s door. He knocked twice, entering when he heard a quiet “come in.”

Mikasa looked up from the light table she was working at when he stepped inside. “Hey, thanks for coming.”

Levi waved her off, glancing curiously around the sparsely decorated room. There was a massage table folded up in the corner, two chairs, and the desk Mikasa was currently sitting at. It was also spotless and smelled faintly of disinfectant, which Levi appreciated.

“Did Annie give you any trouble? I’ve had clients tell me that they find her off-putting.”

Levi could only assume ‘Annie’ was the girl at the front desk.

“No, it was fine. What’d you want to show me?”

“I drew you something,” Mikasa said, looking somewhat hesitant. She reached into a drawer at desk and pulled out a large book, worn with use and fraying at the edges. “It’s not a big deal if you don’t like it, but I thought it might appeal to you more than ‘a unicorn on your ass.’”

“You shouldn’t have gone through the trouble,” he replied as Mikasa flipped through the pages. “Not that I don’t appreciate it, but I really don’t want --”

“Here it is,” Mikasa said, sliding her sketchbook in his direction.

Levi sighed, rubbing the back of his neck as he stepped forward to get a closer look at what Mikasa had drawn. When he saw it, the words got stuck in his throat.

It was a line drawing, in the same style of the ones that Mikasa had pinned around her work station -- outlines for her clients, Levi assumed. ‘Isabel’ was written in ornate script that looked too unique to be anything but hand drawn. The letters were framed by small clusters of magnolias, which seemed poignant in a way he couldn't articulate but made his eyes feel itchy and wet. 

He swallowed and cleared his throat.

“Why magnolias?” Levi asked, hand reaching out to brush against the outer corners of the drawing.

Mikasa shrugged. “It just felt right.”

“It’s beautiful,” he murmured. He felt vulnerable, somehow, like in the short time he'd been reunited with his cousin, Mikasa had somehow managed to see right through him. He knew it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that he loved his daughter, but something about this felt special. Maybe it was the fact that Mikasa had designed it specifically for him, specifically for _Isabel_ , had sat down and etched her impression of them into paper. It was more than Mikasa seeing through him -- she was letting him see _her_.

“And you want to tattoo this on me?”

“If you like it, yeah,” Mikasa said. After a lengthy pause, she added, “I like tattooing my family.”

The thought of Mikasa considering him family made him feel something he didn’t even think he could describe. Warm, maybe, like the first time Isabel had called for him by name. They hadn’t been re-connected for long and he housed a lot of doubt because of it, but Mikasa apparently felt the same way he did.

“So you've tattooed Eren then?” Levi asked casually, watching his cousin from the corner of his eye.

She smiled faintly. “I have. A memorial piece for our mother -- my adoptive mother. If you doubt my skill, you can ask him to show you it the next time you see him. It’s on his back.”

“I don’t doubt you,” Levi said quickly, turning to face her. The last thing he needed to think about was Eren without a shirt, but he also didn't want Mikasa to think he'd asked out of skepticism. With new resolve, he pulled his calendar up on his phone.

“When do you want me to come in?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear Eren is in the next chapter, haha. As always, thank you for reading and your feedback is what keeps me going!


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter marks my longest word count on AO3! I've been feeling kind of self conscious about my writing as of late, but your comments and encouragement are honestly so uplifting and lovely and they really keep me going. I think I say this every chapter but it's because I really, truly mean it - thanks so much for reading this story and letting me know that I'm not just shouting into the void about ace Levi and his terrible dating skills :')
> 
>  
> 
> **TW: If you don't like needles, this chapter might make you squeamish!**

In the end, Levi decided not to tell Isabel that he was getting tattooed. He didn’t tell anyone that he was getting tattooed, actually, because he knew if he was forced to think on it too long, he’d end up second-guessing himself. Erwin would insist that he was only trying to make a good impression on Mikasa which, okay, wouldn’t be completely inaccurate -- but he _did_ like the tattoo. A lot. And he knew Isabel would too.

He’d just dropped her off at Erwin’s house when his phone buzzed insistently against the fabric of his jeans for the fifth time in the last five minutes, making it impossible to ignore. It was probably Hange, as they were the only one who had a tendency of sending multiple texts in succession -- it was the only way to get his attention, they claimed. With a resigned sigh, he fished his phone out of his pocket, his mouth twisting into a puzzled frown when he realized the texts were from an unknown number.

Despite this, he wasn’t frowning for very long.

_4:06pm: hey, it’s eren_

_4:07pm: srry if this is weird (i got your # from kasa) but is it cool if i hang while you get tattooed?_

_4:09pm: if you don’t want me there, it’s np_

_4:09pm: if you want to spend time together just the two of you i would understand_

_4:11pm: srry for blowing up your phone, btw_

Levi didn’t spend a lot of time texting twenty-somethings and wasn’t used to reading text slang -- ‘np’ was pretty easily to figure out using context clues, but ‘btw?’

Shit, this kind of thing made him feel old.

Regardless -- Eren had texted him. He had Eren’s number in his phone. Eren had his number in his phone. The thought sent an annoying tingle of excitement down his spine, an undesirable warmth blooming in his chest.

He wet his lips, tapping his phone against the palm of his hand as he debated on his next course of action. He should text back and say no. He didn’t know what getting tattooed would be like and the last thing he wanted was for Eren to see him caught off guard or out of his element. He also had the feeling that the more time he spent with Eren and Mikasa together, the sooner Mikasa would realize that he really liked Eren -- and not in a familial, distant cousin kind of way.

But it’d been two weeks since Levi had seen Eren for longer than three minutes. Sure, he saw him at carpool five days a week, but it wasn’t like they really talked -- Levi said hello, signed Isabel out, and Eren -- in the midst of talking to a dozen other parents and their children -- would say “see you tomorrow!” or “have a good weekend!” and that was the extent of their interaction.

Every day.

For two weeks.

“Shit,” he muttered aloud, tapping out his succinct reply.

_See you there._

By the time he had finished entering Eren as a new contact, Eren had sent a reply of his own.

_looking forward 2 it! :-)_

Levi tried not to smile as he pushed his gear shift into drive.

 

* * *

 

Mikasa had told him he could head straight to her station when he arrived so he did, giving Annie a wave of acknowledgement before making his way to the back of the shop. Mikasa was unfolding the massage table when he stepped into her room and when she looked up, she greeted him with her usual reticence.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

“You nervous?”

“I’ve had worse stuck in me than needles. I’ll be fine.”

“That’s what I like to hear,” Mikasa replied, swinging the massage table around so that it divided the small room in half. “Eren called and said he’s gonna be late, but that’s nothing new. It’s not like we need him to get started, anyway. Have you thought about where you want it?”

“My chest,” Levi said, gesturing towards the left side of his breast. He didn’t want it in a place where others could easily see it; he liked the idea of having the tattoo for himself, not for other people.

“Over your heart?” Mikasa asked with a coy smile, pulling out a box of latex gloves.

Levi shot her a dangerous look. “I’ll leave.”

Mikasa rolled her eyes. “Take off your shirt,” she said, snapping on a pair of fresh gloves.

When he did, Mikasa studied his abs with pursed lips and shook her head.

“What? You’ve never seen a six pack before?” Levi asked with a smug expression.

“Oh, please,” Mikasa said, using her elbow to pull up the edge of her shirt and reveal a six pack of her own. It was a borderline eight pack, actually, and Levi couldn’t help but to be impressed -- and feel a strong desire to start going to the gym again.

“You’re just someone I know’s type, that’s all,” she explained, lowering her arm as Levi folded up his t-shirt and set it to the side.

Levi snorted, hoisting himself up so that he was sitting on the massage table. “I hardly think divorced dads are a type.”

“Oh, you’d be surprised. Apparently DILFs are all the rage right now,” Mikasa smirked, picking up a bic razor and quickly shaving the space over his left breast. He didn’t have much hair there in the first place, but he supposed it was just part of the prep.

“According to my brother’s internet browser history, anyway.”

“Mikasa!”

Eren stood in the doorway, horrified. His expression would have been comical if Levi wasn’t already sporting a mild blush of his own, nearly choking in surprise at his cousin’s blunt and unexpected statement. He’d never heard the term “DILF” before, but if it was anything like “MILF”...his face immediately grew hotter and he groaned internally, realizing he probably looked like a damn tomato at this point.

Eren immediately began firing off a slew of excuses (“ _it wasn’t like I was specifically searching for DILFs_ ” and “ _stop looking at my internet history_ ” were the two most prominent ones), his cheeks warming to a color that looked similar to the one on Levi’s own. Levi could barely process them though -- his heart was thumping too loudly in his chest, loud enough that he was _sure_ Mikasa could hear, but she said nothing.

What Eren looked at on his own time was his own business. Even if Levi had no interest in that kind of thing, it wasn’t like he had expected Eren to feel the same way. DILFs, though? That was...unexpected.

Levi didn’t exactly feel like he fell into a DILF category. He was short, crass, had a sense of humor that few appreciated… sure, he was muscular but he also had a sour expression on his face 95% of the time. Not exactly the epitome of sex appeal but then, that had always been just fine with him.

Mikasa didn’t look up at her brother, carefully applying the stencil to Levi’s chest. “What? Clear your history if you’re so embarrassed. Levi doesn’t care, right?” she asked, flicking her gaze up at the older man. She had a glint in her eye that Levi couldn’t read and it made him nervous, like a teenager caught sneaking out after curfew.

“I don’t care,” Levi confirmed, shifting uncomfortably now that he held everyone’s attention. “I’m asexual, so I don’t really have any interest in that kind of thing, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it.”

He risked a glance in Eren’s direction. Eren looked surprised, but not confused or disgusted, and Levi found himself releasing a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding as Mikasa slowly peeled the stencil off his body. At the very least, Eren and his sister hadn’t compared him to a plant.

“Anyway, you’re one to talk, ‘Kasa. You’re the one who stalks Annie’s Facebook --”

Mikasa shot him a look that could freeze a desert and Eren grumbled to himself, pulled up a chair so that he was sitting perpendicular to Levi and his sister.

“Annie?” Levi repeated, arching an eyebrow.

“It’s nothing.”

“Annie is polyamorous. She's obviously into Mikasa but she already has a boyfriend,” Eren explained, keeping his voice low. “Mikasa doesn’t know if she can handle an open relationship like that.”

“That’s understandable,” Levi said, tilting his head in her direction. “I don’t think I could.”

“I don’t want to date a co-worker anyway,” Mikasa said in a tone that indicated the end of the discussion.

She readied her station, filling small caps with the colors she would need as she began to explain the process to Levi. Levi was only half-listening, though, distracted by the sudden prickling sensation one gets when they’re being watched; when he looked at Eren, he realized the younger man’s eyes were fixed on his abs, pupils dilating. Eren met his gaze after a long moment and smiled sheepishly at being caught, quickly shifting his attention to the drawings pinned to the wall.

Levi had to bite back a smile of his own.

“You ready?” Mikasa asked, turning the machine on. “Lie down on the table, head this way -- yeah, just like that.”

Levi had heard a lot of different things about tattoos over the years, though not so much recently. Some said it felt like being stabbed, others claimed it barely hurt at all. When the needle first touched his skin, he decided it was somewhere in between -- not unbearable, but not entirely painless either. If anything, it was like being stung by a particularly persistent bee. Repeatedly.

“Does it hurt?” Eren asked and Levi shook his head.

“Not really.”

“Wait ‘til she starts shading,” Eren grinned and Mikasa rolled her eyes for the second time since Levi had seen her that day.

“Don’t freak him out, we just started.”

“I’m not freaked out,” Levi said and Eren laughed, resting his arms on the massage table just a few centimeters away from Levi’s own. Levi knew if he shifted his weight ever so slightly, their arms would brush against each other. It seemed like such a stupid thing to be so aware of, but he couldn’t help but to think of that night in his kitchen, how warm Eren’s hands had been --

“Don’t tense up,” Mikasa chided.

Levi hadn’t even realized he had.

 

* * *

 

The whole process took about two and a half hours. When Mikasa finished, she bandaged the colorful open wound on his chest and explained the aftercare process to him, shoving a complimentary tube of Aquaphor in his hand just before he exited the shop.

All in all, it hadn’t been a bad experience. As he stepped out into the parking lot, he decided it probably wasn’t something he would want to do again, but it had been worth doing this time -- of course, the more he got to know his cousin, the more he was beginning to realize she had a way of pulling at strings from behind the curtain.

“Hey, Levi, wait!”

Levi turned away from his car, surprised to see Eren running out after him.

“Sorry, I just wanted to catch you before you left,” he said, catching his breath. “Do you, uh -- do you want to go out for drinks with me and Mikasa later this week?”

Levi tried to remember the last time he had socialized this much and drew a complete blank. Even so, it wasn’t like he didn’t want to go -- he’d just need to make sure it was a day that Isabel was spending the night at Erwin’s.

“This bar Mikasa and I go to a lot, _Mike’s_ , has a pretty good happy hour on Wednesdays --”

“Yeah...we probably wouldn’t need to go during happy hour to get a good deal,” Levi said, rubbing the back of his neck stiffly.

“Remember when I told you Erwin’s boyfriend’s name is Mike?”

Eren looked perplexed for a minute before it finally clicked. “Oh. _Oh_. Wow. Small world, huh?”

 _Pretty fucking small_ , Levi thought to himself.

“Did you want to go somewhere else then? Because, that’d be totally fine --”

“No, it’s not that,” Levi said, shaking his head. He couldn’t really bring himself to say “ _but that nosy bastard will relay everything back to Erwin_ ,” so he didn’t.

“Mike’s is fine. Wednesday. Seven okay?”

Eren grinned at him.

“See you there.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I changed my tumblr username! You can now find me at [titanteeth](http://titanteeth.tumblr.com/).


	10. Chapter 10

As usual, Levi had arrived first. The beer was bitter on his tongue in a familiar way, easing down his throat and settling warmly in his stomach, calming his nerves. He felt jittery, but it had nothing to do with the fact he’d be seeing Mikasa soon.

Despite having only been in each other’s lives for a short period of time, he and his cousin had already developed something of a rapport. It was hard for him to articulate – after all, Levi had never been the best with words – but for whatever reason, he felt comfortable around Mikasa and he had an inkling that she felt the same. They understood each other. It was almost as if they’d always known each other, like the chasm of time they’d spent apart had never happened.

Her brother, on the other hand, was a different story.

Just the thought of those green eyes meeting his own made Levi’s chest clench in a way that was uncomfortably foreign to him. He’d loved Erwin (and still did), but even when they had been together in a romantic sense, he’d never felt like this – like someone had taken his heart in their fist and decided to use it as a stress ball.

He groaned internally, taking another sip of his beer. It seemed like the more he saw Eren, the farther he fell into a dark pit of self-flagellation and guilt. Initially, he’d thought that maybe, just maybe, seeing Eren more often would take away the novelty of seeing him.

But of course, it’d had the exact opposite effect.

Levi fell asleep most nights thinking of Eren’s lopsided smiles, the way he talked with his hands, how open he was in ways that Levi was not. He wondered how many freckles blessed his brown skin, what it would be like to count them with his fingertips, whether Eren was ticklish or not. He wanted to curl his fingers in that disastrous mop of hair, to fall asleep beside him, to wake up to the sound of his laughter --

Oh god, he was doing it _again._

He groaned aloud this time, finishing his beer and motioning for the bartender, Nanaba, to bring him another one.

Some day, Eren would undoubtedly make someone very happy, he thought to himself as Nanaba refilled his glass. That someone just couldn’t be Levi.

He couldn’t -- _wouldn’t_ \-- put his cousin in that position.

“You okay?” Nanaba asked, arching an eyebrow. “You look worse than usual.”

“Thanks,” Levi replied, rolling his eyes. “I’m fine. Just tired.”

Nanaba shrugged, not one to push the issue. It was one of the things he’d always liked about them.

“If you insist.”

“What am I doing,” he muttered to himself after Nanaba had left, running a hand through his hair and exhaling slowly. He had to shake this off before --

“Levi, hey!”

Eren situated himself on the bar stool next to Levi, automatically pulling his ID out of his pocket and sliding it onto the counter. “Were you waiting long?”

Levi shook his head. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d needed to be carded -- he was short, but his frown lines made him look older -- and the fact Eren even needed to be carded was just another reminder of their massive age difference. Just another reason on the long ass list of reasons why Levi needed to squash this dumb crush of his and fast.

Eren smiled at him, drumming his fingers on the countertop. He looked nervous, Levi realized. But why would Eren be nervous? He wasn’t underage. He’d been to this bar before. It wasn’t like they were alo --

Wait a minute.

“Where’s Mikasa?” he asked, taking what he hoped looked like a casual swallow from his glass.

“Ah, she has a cold,” Eren explained. For reasons unbeknownst to Levi, he seemed determined not to look Levi in the eye. “So she can’t make it.”

Well, that explained it. Eren wasn’t comfortable with the idea of the two of them getting a drink together without Mikasa. It stung, but Levi didn’t hold it against Eren -- if anything, it was probably for the best.

“That’s too bad,” Levi replied, finishing his drink and pulling out his wallet to leave a tip for Nanaba. “You could have just texted me though, you know -- I feel bad you came all the way out here for nothing.”

“Wait, I -- I figured we could still get a drink,” Eren said, eyeing Levi’s empty glass. He wet his lips, meeting Levi’s gaze for the first time that night. His eyes were sincere, maybe even a little hopeful. “If you want, I mean.”

Levi blinked, taken aback. “Okay.”

Had he misread him? He supposed it was possible, but he didn’t know why else Eren would be acting so restless, jiggling his leg under the bar counter, his hands twisting on his lap. Just watching him was making _Levi_ anxious.

“You sure there’s not anything else you’d rather be doing?” he asked.

“I’m sure,” Eren replied, flashing the lopsided grin that made Levi want to do stupid, stupid things. “In fact, drinks are on me,” he added with a wink.

Levi scoffed at that, rolling his eyes. “You’re living on your sister’s couch, just let me pay for it.”

“Don’t think he’s being chivalrous -- it’s on the house, as always,” Nanaba interrupted. Levi had been so preoccupied with Eren’s strange behavior that he hadn’t even noticed they’d returned to his end of the bar. He watched as Nanaba told Eren their name and pronouns and Eren responded in kind, shaking their hand.

“How do you know Levi?” they asked, glancing at their old acquaintance. Levi gave them a sour look in return.

“I’m Isabel’s teacher,” he explained. “Well, substitute teacher.”

Levi waited for Eren to mention Mikasa but surprisingly, he didn’t. Instead, he announced he’d have whatever Levi was drinking, and Nanaba slid the drinks in front of the two of them with a little smile that Levi couldn’t seem to decipher before shifting their attention to the other bar patrons.

“They seemed nice,” Eren thought aloud, sliding his ID back into his pocket and reaching for his free drink.

“Give it a minute,” Levi muttered under his breath. He didn’t know what that smile meant, but he knew it couldn’t be anything good. “Did you walk here?”

Eren nodded, sampling his beer before continuing. “Mikasa’s place is only a couple blocks away so it’s really convenient.”

“What, for hookups?” Levi asked, arching an eyebrow knowingly. Well, not that he knew firsthand -- but he’d had friends Eren’s age once.

Eren snorted. “No, trust me -- there’s nothing even remotely sexy about hooking up on Mikasa’s couch. She has ears like bat.” He paused. “And you don’t have to do that, you know.”

Levi furrowed his brow. “Do what?”

“Talk about sex,” Eren replied, looking him in the eye. “If it makes you uncomfortable.”

Levi’s eyes widened a fraction in surprise and he broke their gaze, opting to stare at his beverage instead. Had anyone else made that statement, it might have come across as condescending. But Eren looked so sincere when he said it, it made his chest actually ache.

“It doesn’t. As long as I’m not getting all the dirty details, it’s fine,” Levi explained.

“Okay. That’s good to know. I just - I don’t want you to feel like you have to pretend. Or something. Like, we don’t have to talk about anything you don’t want to. Uh.” He scratched the back of his head, sighing. “Sorry, I don’t think I’m articulating this very well.”

_‘He’s pretty cute when he’s flustered,’_ Levi thought to himself, propping his head up with his hand and smiling a little into his palm. “Thanks, but I wouldn’t have brought it up if it bothered me that much.”

“If you say so.” His mouth twisted into a teasing smirk. “Is that the impression you have of me, then? Big on hook ups?”

Levi shrugged. “You’re young, attractive. I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“You think I’m attractive?” Eren grinned, leaning closer. Levi could smell his cologne -- faint, but woodsy -- and he made a point to look anywhere but Eren’s lips (or eyes, for that matter.)

“I sincerely doubt that I’m the first person who’s ever told you that.”

“Yeah, but I like hearing it from you,” Eren smiled. Before Levi could begin to decipher what he meant by that, however, Eren quickly changed the subject. “How’s the tattoo healing?”

Levi almost sighed with relief, grateful for the new topic.

“It itches like hell,” he muttered in annoyance. Just mentioning it made the affected area prickle, taunting him, daring him to scratch. “And I keep finding flecks of skin in my bed sheets -- it’s disgusting.”

“That’s normal,” Eren said, grinning in amusement. “Did you show it to Isabel yet?”

“I did. She shrieked so loud she nearly burst my eardrums.”

Eren laughed at that, taking another swig of his beer. “I should’ve guessed.”

“Mikasa said she’s tattooed you before too – on your back, right?”

Eren grinned. “Wanna see?”

“Don’t take your shirt off in a bar,” Levi said quickly, his face growing hot.

“Another time then,” Eren replied, waggling his eyebrows for effect before downing the rest of his beer. “Be right back,” he added before sliding off his stool and heading in the direction of the bathroom.

Levi exhaled slowly with a shake of his head, pulling his phone out of his pocket. He needed a distraction. After checking his e-mails, he sent a quick text to his cousin, figuring he should check up on her. She didn’t seem like the type to get sick often and Levi had a feeling she wasn’t very good at allowing herself to be taken care of either (Levi could relate.)

_L: Sorry you couldn’t make it tonight. Do you need anything? Soup?_

When he glanced up from his phone, he could see Eren making his way back, but the sound of the device vibrating against the bar counter drew his attention back to the screen.

_M: Make it where? What are you talking about?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took a month to post :')
> 
> Aaaand not to make you wait even longer but I probably won't update again until after October because I really wanna write some spooky ereri one shots while I'm motivated/in time for Halloween!!! If you're interested, you'll be able to find them in [my writing tag](http://titanteeth.tumblr.com/tagged/my+writing) on tumblr if I don't post them on AO3 (I tend to not post drabbles/stories that are less than 1.5k words here, just fyi!)
> 
> ALSO, I've been tagging mentions of/me rambling about this story as "fic: trials and tribulations" on tumblr too, so feel free to use that tag as well for anything that mentions/reminds you of/has to do with this story because I would love to see it :^)
> 
> As always, thank you so much for sticking around (and commenting!) This lil ace story just hit over 100 bookmarks and over 200 comments, which is more than I ever expected for a fic that isn't rated M/E. You're the best!


	11. An Interlude: Mikasa

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I started writing this as an exercise for myself (I wanted to go behind the scenes a little, since we only ever see things from Levi's point of view) but after I'd finished, I figured it might be interesting for you all to read as well! I'm calling it an interlude since it's...really short, haha. The response to the last chapter was overwhelming (in the best way possible), so much so that I wasn't able to get back to a lot of you but it really motivated me to post this even though I said I wouldn't be updating again until November. Thank you, thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my heart, and you can always chat with me on [tumblr](http://titanteeth.tumblr.com/) :)

Mikasa had always been perceptive. That being said, it didn’t take a genius to figure out what was going on between her brother and her cousin and honestly, it wasn’t that surprising. Mikasa was used to everyone under the sun falling for her brother. She didn’t blame them. She couldn’t, really. Her brother, for all his faults, was a good and earnest person who stood up for those he cared about, fought for what he believed in, and she could objectively acknowledge that he wasn’t exactly ugly, to say the least. A real Prince Charming, albeit one who had a tendency to strut around with his foot jammed in his mouth.

In addition to being perceptive, Mikasa also considered herself to be a fair and patient person, especially when it came to her brother. Some might say to a fault.

But this? Going behind her back? Lying to Levi?

This was low, even for Eren.

Sighing, she poured herself another cup of coffee before settling onto her couch -- which had recently been dubbed ‘Eren’s bed’ -- and taking a tentative sip of the hot, comforting beverage. A quick glance at the clock on the wall let her know it was half past ten and she relaxed into the worn leather, knowing she could be waiting for awhile.

That was fine. She had a lot to think about before Eren came home.

 

* * *

 

When Mikasa heard the gentle clicking of the lock, she knew her brother was trying to sneak into their apartment without her noticing. Eren had his talents, but secrecy had never been his forte. There were a slew of whispered curses when Eren dropped his keys on the linoleum, very nearly bumping his head on the kitchen counter after he bent over to pick them up. Mikasa did her best not to laugh.

A bull in a china shop, her adoptive mother used to say.

It was unfortunate for her brother that, despite his best efforts to enter quietly, Mikasa was still sitting on the couch, her hands still curled around her mug that had long since cooled. Eren didn’t seem to notice her when he crept into the living room, toeing off his shoes and lifting his shirt over his head. When he finally did look in her direction, he let out a high-pitched yelp and nearly toppled over backward, his shirt still halfway over his head.

“Christ, Mikasa!”

She smiled to herself.

Eren finished pulling the shirt over his head, tossing it on top of the precariously high tower dirty clothes that were threatening to spill over his hamper.

“Is there a reason you’re just casually hanging out in my room at midnight?” he asked, rummaging through his suitcase for a clean shirt. He slid it on before facing her and he had the audacity to look annoyed.

“Your room is the living room, Eren.”

“I know that,” Eren grumbled in response. Even in the low light, Mikasa could see the flush on the back of his neck.

“You should be nicer to your sickly sister.”

Mikasa watched as her brother’s posture stiffened, his eyes widening.

So Levi hadn’t called him out on his stunt, she realized. Interesting.

It was almost amusing to watch him process the information; he looked horrified, then guilty, like the time he’d spilled grape juice on one of his mother’s favorite saris. Mikasa found herself feeling a little sorry for him, though she knew she shouldn’t -- Eren’s half-baked plans coming back to bite him on the ass were not something she was unaccustomed to.

“How did you know?” he asked quietly.

“Levi offered to bring me some soup.”

“Shit,” Eren muttered, running a hand through his hair. “Shit,” he repeated, flopping down next to his sister on the couch with an exhausted sigh. He closed his eyes, letting his head loll over the back of the sofa.

“So,” Mikasa started. “How _was_ your secret date with my cousin?”

“It wasn’t a date,” Eren insisted, turning his head slightly to look at her. “I just -- we never really spend time alone together, you know? I just wanted to see what it would be like before...jumping into anything...or saying anything to you. In case it was nothing.”

“That’s literally what a date is, Eren,” Mikasa said, pursing her lips. She pinched her brother’s cheek, making him emit another surprised yelp. “Don’t play dumb with me. It’s not cute.”

Eren rubbed his cheek, frowning and scooting further away from his sister. “Okay, okay. I’m sorry.”

“What you did wasn’t fair to me or Levi, you know,” she continued, crossing her arms. “You lied to both of us.”

“I didn’t lie to you! I just...didn’t tell you about plans that I made with him,” Eren replied sheepishly. “And I know I did a bad thing but I didn’t know how else I could spend time alone with him without it being obvious that I…” He trailed off after that, staring into his lap.

Silence settled over them like a blanket until finally, Mikasa sighed heavily in defeat, giving her brother a sympathetic pat on his knee.

“For the record, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have been opposed if you’d just called it what it was.”

“What do you mean?”

She rolled her eyes - experience had taught her that boys were incredibly dense, but her brother was the reigning champ when it came to his love life (or lackthereof, as of late.)

“You’re both idiots,” she said, standing up and heading over to her bedroom. “But...you’re idiots that deserve to be happy, and I’m not going to get in your way if this is what you really want.” She didn’t miss the way Eren’s shoulders seemed to relax.

“Just don’t put me in the middle,” she added firmly, giving Eren one last pointed look before letting the door shut behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On an unrelated note, my sweet and beautiful beta recently gifted me an ace/arospec ereri oneshot, [Love Like Lightning](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5028091), and it made me tear up because it was just that good and you should do yourself a favor and read it!


	12. Chapter 12

It was Levi's turn to host board game night, but Erwin's turn to choose the game. Erwin only ever chose one game and coincidentally enough, it was the game that everyone else hated playing, especially with him. This was partially because he always won, but also because it was a general consensus among their group that Monopoly was the worst board game ever to be invented, let alone played.

Levi moved his piece - the iron, as always - past ‘GO’ with a sigh, gesturing for Erwin - the banker, as always - to give him his two hundred bucks. They’d been playing for the last two hours and Erwin already owned two thirds of the properties on the board. Hange was stuck in jail, Mike was in debt, and Isabel...well, it was clear she's lost interest awhile ago, if the fact she was listlessly dragging her piece (the terrier) around the board was any indication.

"Isabel, could you get another bag of chips out of the pantry?" Levi asked, giving her a gentle pat on the shoulder. They had plenty of snacks, but he needed her out of the room if he was going to broach the subject that had overtaken his thoughts for the last 24 hours.

Isabel huffed but slid off her chair, padding into the kitchen. Levi waited until he was sure she was out of earshot before speaking again.

"I need to talk to you guys about something," he said, nudging one of his stacks of fake bills so that all the edges were perfectly aligned. "But I need you to not overreact." He looked directly at Hange when he said this and they arched a curious eyebrow, raising their hand to form the scout's honor. It did little to reassure him, but it was enough.

"The other night, I had plans to meet up with Mikasa and Eren, but Mikasa didn't show," he started, running his thumb over the edges of the die he had yet to pass off to Hange. "When I asked him about it, he said she was sick and couldn’t make it."

He glanced at Mike. If Nanaba had mentioned that Levi had been drinking alone with Eren, it didn't show on his face. Then again, Mike’s go-to game had always been poker.

"I texted her to ask her if she needed anything but she had no idea what I was talking about."

“Oh-ho,” Hange grinned, shoveling a fistful of pretzels into their mouth. They didn’t bother to finish chewing before continuing. “This just got juicy.”

“Do you think…” Levi paused, furrowing his brow. “Do you think he’s trying to feel me out? Make sure I’m not going to hurt Mikasa?”

There was a collective groan from around the table.

"What?" he snapped, crossing his arms over his chest.

“A cute boy makes up a reason to spend time alone with you and you think it’s because he’s thinking of his sister,” Hange said, propping their head up with their hand and pursing their lips in a “are-you-really-this-dense” fashion.

“It’s not that I didn’t think it could be for...another reason,” Levi replied, his ears burning. “This reason just seemed way more plausible than a twenty-something year old wanting anything to do with a divorced father in his mid-thirties.”

Hange’s eyes seemed to soften and Levi looked away, uncomfortable.

“Does he know you know?” Mike asked after a brief silence, rubbing the scruff on his chin thoughtfully.

Levi shrugged, sighing heavily. “No. I don’t know. Not unless Mikasa said something to him.” 

“You think Mikasa _wouldn’t_ say something to him?” Erwin asked, his tone implying he thought the exact opposite. He was right -- Levi hadn’t known Mikasa for very long, but what he did know was there was no way in hell she didn’t say something to Eren.

Anxiety churned in his stomach, unforgiving, and he drummed his fingers on the table impatiently. “So what do I do? If he knows _I_ know, he’s gonna wonder why I didn’t say anything.”

Erwin arched an eyebrow. “Why _didn’t_ you say anything?”

“I didn’t want to make it awkward.”

“You mean, you didn’t want to give Eren a reason to leave,” Hange smirked, flicking a pretzel at him. “You’re so transparent, you know.”

Levi scowled. “You’re not helping.”

“Obviously you need to talk to him,” Erwin interjected. “As soon as possible.”

“Talk to who?” Isabel asked, reappearing from the kitchen. A family size bag of cheese puffs blocked her face from view, but Levi knew her eyebrows were probably pinched together -- a bad habit she’d picked up from him. 

Levi opened his mouth before he could come up with a decent sounding diversion, his jaw hanging open for a few awkward seconds before a knocking sound in the front entryway drew everyone’s attention away from him.

“That’ll be the pizza,” he said quickly. He wasn’t a religious man - not even close - but he couldn’t help but to thank whatever higher power had granted him this reprieve as he headed into the foyer. 

When he opened the door, he was surprised to see Eren staring back at him, his fist raised as if ready to knock for a second time.

“You’re not the pizza guy,” Levi said automatically. In that moment, he found himself wishing he were flexible enough to kick himself in the face.

“Sorry to disappoint,” Eren said with what sounded like a nervous laugh. He chewing on his bottom lip before shoving his hands in his pockets. 

“Hi.”

“Hey?” Levi replied, though it came out sounding more like a question than a greeting. He could feel another prickle of anxiety, this time stirring in his chest. It wasn’t that he didn’t _want_ to see Eren -- he just couldn’t fathom why Eren was currently standing on his porch, unannounced and alone.

“Sorry, I know I didn’t call ahead and it looks like you have company -” Eren gestured towards the cars in his driveway with a nod of his chin. “- But I uh, I just really needed to talk to you. Face to face.”

Levi glanced over his shoulder in the direction of the living room. Hange and Mike were in what sounded like a loud bidding war that could go on for awhile, so he stepped outside and closed the door behind him, hoping no one would notice his absence for the time being. 

“What’s up? Is everything okay?”

“Yeah.” Eren winced. “Shit, yeah. Sorry, I’m just now realizing how this must look. Yeah, everything is fine. Mikasa is fine.”

Levi released a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. This was good. Still, his nervousness didn’t completely dissipate; he watched as the man before him rocked on the balls of his feet, his shoulders hunched forward. He was looking everywhere but directly at Levi and it was unsettling, to say the least. If he didn’t know better, he’d think he was about to be dumped, but that was impossible -- there was nothing romantic between himself and Eren. 

Well, nothing mutual, anyway.

“I just, uh.” Eren paused, struggling to find the words. “You didn’t call me out when you found out I lied to you.”

Levi’s eyes widened a fraction in surprise. He didn’t know what he had been expecting, but it hadn’t been that. 

“I figured you had your reasons,” he replied cautiously. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t wonder why, but you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

Illuminated by the dim light of his porch lamp, Eren looked younger than he already was, vulnerable in a way that Levi had never seen him before. The Eren that Levi had come to know was always so self-assured, smiled easily and in turn, made Levi feel at ease - this Eren was not that person and it worried him.

A gust of autumn wind made him shiver and he crossed his arms over his chest, frowning.

“Eren, just tell me what’s going on. Was that what you wanted to come here to say?” He looked around his driveway, noticing the absence of any unfamiliar or extra cars. “How did you even get here?”

“I took the bus. I don’t own a car and Mikasa was using hers - anyway, it’s not important,” Eren said. He finally met his gaze, his jaw tight with determination. 

“Levi, I like you.”

“Thank you?” Levi replied after a stunned pause, his brows furrowing in confusion. “I like you too.”

“No, not like --” Eren sighed with frustration, balling his fists. “Not ‘I like you as my sister’s cousin’ or ‘I like you as a parent that I have to see on a regular basis.’ I _like_ you. Like, a lot.”

His next words came out in a rush. “And I know that’s probably really weird, considering, well, _everything_ , but I liked you before I knew you were related to Mikasa and I just never knew how to ask you out without it being weird or a conflict of interest or whatever, you know? And I know I’m probably not supposed to want to make out with one of my student’s parents but half the time it’s all I can think about -”

Eren was still rambling and all Levi could do was stare in bewilderment as he tried to process what was happening.

“And the rest of the time I’m wondering stupid things, like whether you’re a big spoon or a little spoon, or what you like to get on your popcorn at the movies, or if you even _like_ popcorn-”

 _Was_ this happening? To _him_ , of all people? Had he dozed off during their game of Monopoly? It’d happened before. This could all be a very weird, very self-satisfying dream. He could be drooling on Park Place at this very moment, with Hange taking unflattering pictures to tag him in on Facebook. 

“- and I know this is probably going to make things weird between us and I’m being selfish but I couldn’t just keep -”

“Eren,” Levi said abruptly, taking a step closer. He reached up to cup Eren’s cheek in his palm; it was warm and soft and _real_ , and he wondered if it was possible to throw up his own heart because it felt like it was pounding in his throat, fighting to escape.

He bridged the gap between them.

When their lips touched, Levi felt a surge of electricity that seemed to rattle his very core. It wasn’t his first kiss, but it was the first one to ever feel like his legs might give out any moment. It took him a moment to decide if he liked the feeling (he did.) Eren’s lips were soft and gentle, the corners quirked upwards into an infectious smile that Levi could feel rather than see. His fingers combed through Levi’s undercut and Levi found himself melted against him, slotting their lips together until Eren inadvertently broke the kiss when a laugh burst from his throat.

“Sorry, it’s not funny -” Eren’s grin stretched across his entire face, ducking his head down to press his forehead against Levi’s. His cheeks were flushed and Levi wondered if it was because of the cool autumn air or because of _him_. “I’m just - I’m really, really happy.”

Levi wanted to scowl but found that he couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth from twitching upward.

“This isn’t like me,” he said with a slight shake of his head. “Kissing a boy over a decade younger than me on my porch, of all places.” 

“You should do it more often,” Eren quipped and Levi bit back a laugh of his own as he gripped Eren’s chin between his thumb and pointer so he could guide his lips back to where he wanted them. 

After a few more minutes, the reality of the situation began to bloom at the forefront of his mind and he forced himself to pull away. “Shit, we need to talk about this. Mikasa --”

“Mikasa is fine with it,” Eren interrupted, cheeks flushed in a way that Levi couldn’t help but to find almost unbearably adorable. “I uh, actually got her blessing yesterday.”

“Did you now?” Levi replied with a playful lilt in his voice. He couldn’t stop the smiling stretching across his face even if he wanted to. Well, that was one less thing to weigh on his conscience. He knew he’d need to have a conversation of his own with his cousin in the near future but for now, this was enough. More than enough, even.

“Still, you should go before _they_ figure out you’re here,” Levi sighed, tilting his head over his shoulder in the direction of his house.

Eren looked over Levi’s shoulder, eyes widening.

“Uh, about that…”

“Don’t tell me,” Levi groaned aloud, turning so that he could follow Eren’s gaze. Sure enough, four noses were pressed up against his once spotless window, accompanied by four identical grins (though one was a bit more maniacal than the others.) Hange waved.

“Christ,” Levi muttered, turning back around to face Eren. “It’s not too late for you to run, you know.”

Eren grinned, lacing their fingers together. “Only if you come with me.”

Levi groaned again in embarrassment, hiding his face against Eren’s chest. “Don’t be so cheesy.”

“I think you like it. The tops of your ears are red,” Eren pointed out. 

Damn his traitorous ears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments/kudos appreciated, as always! And feel free to chat with me on [tumblr](http://titanteeth.tumblr.com) :^)


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, hello! Thanks for being so patient with me, everyone. I've been swamped with holiday festivities and the ereri secret santa deadline but now that's all over and done with and I'm looking forward to carrying this story into the new year! :^)
> 
> Also, I've been meaning to say this for awhile but some of you have been including this story on your fic rec posts on tumblr and I just want to say it seriously blows my mind in the best way possible. Thank you :')

He drove Eren home. He had, unfortunately, to go back inside to get his car keys, where he was immediately accosted with cat calls and a barrage of questions from Isabel, but he assured his daughter and his friends that he’d be back in twenty minutes and could they please not fuck up his house in the meantime? Then he’d slapped a quarter in Isabel’s greedy palm and darted back out the door.

The drive back to Eren and Mikasa’s place was mostly silent, save for the soft jazz playing on the radio. Levi hated jazz, but in the event that Eren didn’t, he opted not to announce this fact or change the channel.

He didn’t know what to say. In some ways, he felt like he was back at square one. He couldn’t tell if the silence was awkward or comfortable. He was fine with it, he had a lot to think about -- but was Eren? Was he regretting kissing him? Admittedly, it’d been awhile since Levi had kissed anyone. He was out of practice - maybe the kiss had actually been terrible. Maybe Eren was regretting confessing to someone who couldn’t even make casual car conversation. Maybe -

“Sorry, I kind of hate jazz - can I change this?” Eren asked suddenly, hand hovering over the dial.

Levi’s shoulders sagged with relief.

“Be my guest.”

He exhaled as inconspicuously as possible, relaxing his grip on the steering wheel as Eren changed the station to something more palatable. Apparently, ‘palatable’ meant early 2000s alternative rock, which meant they had something in common other than his cousin. Of course, it was hard to ignore the fact that Eren had listened to this kind of music at an entirely different stage of his life; he’d probably listened to this music in high school, while Levi distinctly associated it with an all-time low point in his life.

The song seamlessly transitioned into another and Eren snorted suddenly, leaning back in his seat.

Levi’s gaze flickered in his direction. “What’s so funny?”

“Oh, nothing, I just -” He paused for a minute, as if debating whether it were even worth voicing. “I lost my virginity to this song.”

“Wow.” Levi felt the inklings of a laugh tickling the back of his throat. He couldn’t remember the name of the song or who sang it, but he distinctly remembered being dragged to one of their shows when he was younger. It was hard to forget a stranger puking on your favorite pair of converses, and he had had a bruise from some asshole elbowing him in the moshpit for weeks after. However, even if he wasn’t incredibly biased and none of that had happened, the fact remained that no matter how you listened to it, there was nothing even remotely sexual about the song. Absolutely nothing. In fact, it seemed like the kind of song you’d put on to _avoid_ a situation becoming sexual.

“Was it in the backseat of your car too?” he guessed, only half-joking as he shot a brief accusatory glance in Eren’s direction.

Eren laughed guiltily, cocking his head to look at Levi’s profile. “It was my dad’s car, actually, about a month before I totaled it.”

Levi snorted. “Typical.”

“Very.”

He knew if he turned his head again to look at the man next to him, he would be smiling, but he resisted the urge and kept his eyes on the road. He didn’t realize he was wearing a smile of his own until his face started to feel sore a few minutes later.

“We can go slow, you know,” Eren said as they pulled up in front of his apartment complex. “I mean, if you don’t want to put a label on -” He gestured between the two of them. “- I’m okay with that. Just because we - there’s no pressure.”

There were a lot of things Levi liked about Eren -- his honesty was among them. Levi had never had the patience for carefully constructed conversations, ones with sugar-coated purposes and buried ulterior meanings. It was probably one of the reasons he and Erwin hadn’t worked out romantically; Erwin was a good friend and a good father and Levi loved him, but Erwin had a habit of approaching difficult discussions strategically, carefully crafting each sentence so that nothing could be misconstrued. Eren appeared to be much more of a straight shooter. Speaking before thinking it through, stumbling over his words but somehow not meaning them any less.

It was...refreshing.

“Eren.” Levi turned off the ignition before twisting in his seat to face the younger man, his expression serious.

“I’m thirty three years old, I’m divorced, and I have a daughter. I know none of this is news to you but I’m too old, too settled to be fucking around, you know?” He sighed, trying to determine the best way to convey his thoughts. “And I’ll spare you the condescending bullshit like ‘you have your whole life ahead of you’ but I just want to make sure you’ve really thought about what this -” He mimicked Eren’s gesture from earlier. “- would mean.”

“I have,” Eren replied. He reached out to take Levi’s hand, his gaze resolute. “And listen - I want you to know that I would never, ever want to needlessly complicate Isabel’s life and I would never expect you to treat her as anything less than your number one priority. I know you have a very full life. What I’m saying is that if you can - if you _want_ to make a little room for me - that’s what I want.”

Levi squeezed his hand, a tempest roiling in his chest. After all, It felt like he’d just asked Eren to take on the world and Eren had said he would, without a second thought. He made it sound so easy but Levi knew there was no way it could be -- there would be compromises, and disappointments, and misunderstandings. When he thought about it that way, it almost didn’t seem worth it, especially considering what was at stake. But then Eren leaned in and pressed his lips to Levi’s, gently, and all the doubts Levi had turned to white noise in the back of his brain.

“Is Mikasa home? I want to talk to her,” he said after Eren pulled away. He needed to, before this went any further. He knew Eren had her blessing and that by default, that blessing probably extended to Levi as well, but he needed his own confirmation. He didn’t want Mikasa to think he didn’t care about how she felt about the two of them dating -- he did, and if she were to tell him he didn’t want him to date her brother, he would respect that.

She was, after all, family.

“No, she had plans with Annie. You could catch her tomorrow though, if you wanted to come by.” Eren smiled a little. “Maybe we could do something after.”

“Oh, you mean like an actual date?”

Eren looked away. It was hard to tell in the dark, but Levi had a sneaking suspicion that he was blushing.

“Yeah, one of those.”

“I’d like that,” Levi said, a hint of a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. He’d like that a lot.

* * *

When Levi returned to his house, There was only one car left in the driveway -- Erwin’s. He didn’t know how his ex-husband had managed to convince Hange to skip out on the post-kiss interrogation, but then again, Erwin had always had a way with words. The silver spoon in his mouth aside, it was the reason he was such a damn good lawyer.

That being said, Levi knew Hange’s absence didn’t necessarily mean he was off the hook. It could actually be the contrary. Hange’s questions, while generally bordering on TMI, were typically all in good fun -- for them, anyway. Questions like “what was the kiss like? Was there tongue? What did his breath smell like? How much saliva was swapped? On a scale of one to ten --’’

Those kinds of questions, while generally undesirable, Levi could handle. Erwin, though, had a tendency to ask questions that were a lot harder to answer. Questions like, ‘So what does this mean for the two of you?’ and ‘Where do you see this going?’

He couldn’t answer those questions without talking to Mikasa first, so he didn’t want to think about it. He just wanted to be happy with the way things were right now, in this moment, the memory of Eren’s lips against his own still fresh in his mind.

Levi sighed heavily, steeling himself for the onslaught of questions that were sure to come. He stepped inside just as Erwin finished descending the stairs, offering Levi a knowing smile when they made eye contact. The house was suspiciously quiet, which suggested Erwin had just finished putting Isabel to bed.

Levi felt a small twinge in his chest -- it’d been his turn to tuck Isabel in and he’d missed it, had opted to drive Eren home instead and completely disregarded how close it had been to her bedtime -- but he quickly tamped the feeling down, knowing Erwin would scold him for even entertaining such a thought process if he knew Levi was having it.

There would be plenty of bedtimes in Isabel’s lifetime. It was fine to miss one, occasionally.

“So how’d it go?” Erwin asked, leaning against the banister. “Did you get yourself a boyfriend?”

“Possibly,” Levi replied, glancing around the seemingly empty house. “Where’s yours?”

“Hange gave him a ride home. Thought I’d wait for you alone. He did, however, warn me not to ‘give you the third degree.’”

“Good man,” Levi said. He found himself thinking Mike just might get something other than socks for Hanukkah this year.

“That he is,” Erwin said with a fond smile. He inclined his chin towards the steps. “We just finished story time if you want to say good night.”

Levi nodded. “Yeah, I do.”

Erwin put a hand on his shoulder as he passed, squeezing.

“I’m really happy for you, Levi.”

Levi wasn’t sure how to respond to that. He settled for nodding a second time, knowing Erwin was being sincere, and waited for the lock to click behind him before he made his way up the steps and down the hall to his daughter’s bedroom.

“Dad?” said a quiet voice when he cracked the door open.

“I’m here,” Levi murmured, taking a seat on the edge of Isabel’s bed. He brushed a hand over her hair before smoothing out the covers on top of her, making sure she was tucked in tightly.

“Sorry for skipping out on game night,” he whispered. “And story time.”

“S’okay,” she mumbled sleepily. Her eyelids fluttered, but didn’t open. “Is Eren your boyfriend now?”

“Maybe. I’m not sure yet,” he replied honestly, gently combing his fingers through her hair. “Would it be okay with you if he was?”

Isabel nodded, smiling.

“I like Eren,” she yawned and Levi smiled back, waiting until he was sure she was asleep before leaning down to press a kiss to her temple.

“Yeah, I do too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come talk to me on [tumblr](http://titanteeth.tumblr.com/)!


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, all! If you’ve been reading this story as each chapter is published (bless you, by the way), the first part of this chapter is probably going to be familiar to you. Surprise! I decided to move this section from the end of previous chapter to this one. This is what happens when you don’t have an outline or story timeline. My bad! Please accept this tooth-rotting fluff as my humble apology. :^)

Rather than his alarm clock, it was the phone vibrating against his nightstand that woke Levi from a rare deep slumber the next morning. He hadn’t had a sleep that restful in awhile, though he knew better than to think it was going to become a habit. Insomnia was still insomnia, regardless of what his current romantic situation was. Even so, it felt like a tension he hadn’t known he’d been harboring had somehow melted off his frame.

He stretched languidly before he felt around for his phone with his eyes closed, only cracking one open once he held it in his hand. It took a minute for the word to register in his brain, but once they had, a dopey kind of smile -- one that he’d be embarrassed about later, for sure -- stretched across his face.

_Eren: movie @ my place 2night? i have popcorn_

Levi pulled the covers back over his head, attempting some sluggish Isabel math in his head. It was Erwin’s night tonight, which meant he’d be dropping Isabel off after work and would be obligation-free for the evening. He bit his lip, typing out a response with his thumb.

_L: Is Mikasa going to be around?_

_E: she’ll probably politely excuse herself after u talk_

_L: 8:00 okay?_

_E: 8 is perfect. see you @ pick up today ;-*_

He smiled again, glancing at the time before flinging the covers off of himself and trudging into his bathroom. Once he’d taken care of business, he made his way down to Isabel’s room, knocking on the door frame until he saw the blanketed lump on the bed stir.

“Iz, time to get up.”

“Did it snow?” Isabel asked groggily, poking her head out from under the covers. She squinted at the morning light that filtered through her window, grinding her fists against her eyes to rid them of any crust that had gathered in them overnight.

“What? Why would it have snowed?” he asked, utterly bemused.

“I wore my pajamas inside out and backwards,” she replied petulantly, sitting up and crossing her arms. Her hair stuck out in every direction except down, somehow defying gravity entirely. “Eren told us that’s how you make it snow.”

“It’s only November, goof,” Levi said, shaking his head as he picked up the brush on her dresser. “C’mere.”

He sat on the edge of her bed and Isabel scooted towards him, yawning as she shifted so her back was facing him instead. As he did every morning they were together, he tackled the knots in her hair one section at a time, gently brushing them out until he could run his fingers through her ginger hair without any snags. He wondered how much longer he would be permitted to do this. At what age did little girls insist they could brush their own hair?

As a child, his hair had been long, though that had been more due to neglect rather than by choice. His mother had died too early for him to know if she would have enjoyed brushing it for him. He swallowed, pushing that train of thought back to the very recesses of his mind where it belonged and returned his attention to the task at hand.

“Hey Iz, about last night…” he started, knowing he should choose his words carefully. “Do you think you can keep it a secret from your friends at school?”

“Keep what a secret?” she asked. Though he couldn’t see her face, he knew she knew _exactly_ what. His daughter was already developing her other father’s skill of playing others, but fortunately for Levi, she was still terrible at feigning innocence.

“Don’t be cute with me, you little heathen,” he said and Isabel giggled into her hands. “You know what.”

“You kissed Eren,” she sang, her words dissolving into a surprised screech when Levi dropped the brush and began tickling her sides. He grinned as she squirmed and screamed, her laughter loud enough to make his ears ring and when he relented she rolled away from him, throwing one of her pillows at him in retaliation. It hit him in the chest with a soft _whump_ before falling onto the floor and he leaned down to pick it up, thankful he had just vacuumed her room yesterday.

“But _why_ can’t I tell anyone,” Isabel pouted, crossing her arms over her chest. No doubt she had been looking forward to telling everyone in her class -- hell, probably anyone that would listen.

“Because we don’t want Eren to get in trouble,” Levi replied sternly, setting the pillow back on her bed and extending his pinky finger to his daughter. “Okay? Promise?”

“I promise,” Isabel sighed, linking her pinky around his.

“Good.” Levi kissed the top of her head and briefly disappeared from the room to retrieve some hair ties from the bathroom. When he returned, Isabel had changed out of her pajamas and was admiring her clothing selection in the full-length mirror attached to her closet door. The outfit she had assembled...sort of matched, if he squinted, so he decided to let it slide.

Levi crouched down and gathered half of her hair together, expertly twisting the first hair tie around it.

“How about if you keep this secret for me, I’ll buy that scooter you’ve been saving up for,” he offered. “Then you can use your swear jar funds for something else.”

Isabel’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

“Mmhm. But you _have_ to keep your lips zipped,” he said, repeating his actions on the remaining section of hair. “Deal?”

“Deal,” she grinned.

They shook on it and Levi fluffed her pigtails a few times, double checking to make sure they were symmetrical. “Don’t forget to brush your teeth,” he said before standing up and returning to his bedroom to get ready for the day.

 

* * *

 

Eren’s grin had been blinding when Levi had come to pick up Isabel after school, winking mischievously when they made eye contact. Even as he spoke with other parents, his eyes never seemed to leave Levi as he helped Isabel put on her coat, listening as she chattered about her day It might have been his imagination, but at what point, it looked the teacher’s fingers had twitched in Levi’s direction, just before he’d crossed his arms over his chest. Like he wanted to touch him but knew he shouldn’t.

Levi could relate.

“See you tonight,” Eren had murmured when Levi had leaned forward to sign his daughter out. The rest of the parents in the room seemed none the wiser and Levi gave a quick nod in response, his face warm. Eren’s musical laugh seemed to follow him down the hallway.

Isabel had sang along to the radio the whole way to Erwin’s house and for the few songs he knew, Levi joined her, his voice cracking during the high notes, anticipation thrumming through his veins like static.

8 o’clock seemed very far away.

 

* * *

 

After two showers and several outfit changes, Levi parked outside of Mikasa and Eren’s apartment building ten minutes early, his fingers drumming on the steering wheel. Through his windshield, he could see Mikasa sitting on a bench just outside of the front door, legs crossed as she tapped something out on her phone. He doubted her being there was fortuitous.

He stepped out of the car and wordlessly took a seat next to her, pulling his coat tighter around himself. Mikasa’s scarf was wrapped around her nose and mouth, making her face harder to read than usual. Winter was fast encroaching, despite the fact it seemed like just last week, Levi and Erwin had taken Isabel trick-or-treating. He shoved his hands in his pockets and they sat in silence for several long moments.

“You know, historically, Eren hasn’t had very good taste in men,” Mikasa finally said without looking up from her phone.

“Ouch.”

“Let me finish,” she warned, her words muffled through the threadbare fabric. She tucked her phone into her pocket and began twisting the frayed edges of her scarf around her fingers. “I know neither of you planned for this to happen, just like I know the guilt has probably been eating away at you since that night you saw him next to me on your doorstep.”

She looked up at the sky, dark but too thick with clouds to see any stars, and sighed.

“Whether he knows it or not, what Eren needs in his life right now is stability. He’s working a temporary job, living in a temporary place. He doesn’t need a temporary relationship.” She tilted her head in Levi’s direction. “I don’t think you do either.”

He nodded solemnly. After all, it wasn’t like she was wrong. He waited until he was sure she didn’t have anything else to add before he spoke, his words blooming into soft puffs of smoke in the cool night air.

“I’m not going to claim that I know how long this -- whatever Eren and I might have -- will last. Assuming we have anything at all. But I wouldn’t be pursuing this if I didn’t think it had potential.” Levi swallowed thickly, focusing his attention on a crack in the sidewalk.

“I really like him. Isabel really likes him. I want to see where this goes. But not -” He looked up at his cousin, her dark eyes boring into his own. “Not at your expense. Not if it makes you uncomfortable. We haven’t known each other that long but -- you’re my family. ”

His words seemed to hang in the air, heavy with more emotion than either of them were really comfortable expressing vocally. But it had to be said.

“I want my brother to be happy,” Mikasa said finally. “And I want you to be happy too.”

“And what about you?” Levi asked, shivering when a strong wind ruffled through his undercut. “No one’s asking you to be a martyr.”

“Just...don’t do anything R-rated in my apartment,” she replied, her tone dry. “That’s still _my_ couch, even if that deadbeat is sleeping on it.”

“I _really_ don’t think you have to worry about that.”

“Just putting it out there.”

“Duly noted,” Levi replied with a faint smile. “Can we go inside now? It’s fucking freezing out here.”

“You go ahead,” she said, averting her gaze. “I’m... actually waiting for someone.”

“Annie?” Levi guessed, smirking.

“You’re gonna be late, Sherlock,” Mikasa drawled, tugging her scarf tighter around her face. He wasn’t sure if her face was red because of the cold or not. “Get out of here.”

He patted her knee faux-sympathetically and she shouldered him roughly in retaliation, jostling her scarf in the process and unveiling what had been a hidden smile. She pursed her lips and rewrapped the scarf with a huff and Levi laughed, standing up and heading into the warmth of the apartment building.

By the time he made it to the sixth floor, Levi had devolved into a 5"3 ball of nerves. He wiped his sweaty palms on his jacket, taking a couple of deep breaths to center himself.

It’d just -- it’d been so _long_ since he’d been on a date and even when it hadn’t been, he never really knew how they were supposed to go or what was expected of him, what was too little and what was too much. He’d been on a handful of dates since the divorce but never anything serious, or with anyone he was particularly invested in.

Eren was in a different league entirely.

He smoothed his hands over his hair a few times before knocking, standing up a little straighter than he normally would. He heard “just a second!” through the door, followed by what sounded like something heavy falling, then footsteps. Eren flung the door open and Levi was immediately assaulted by the smell of popcorn and the distinct acrid smell of smoke.

“Did you burn the popcorn?” Levi asked, rocking forward onto the balls of his feet in an attempt to peer over Eren’s shoulder.

“No,” Eren replied immediately, before offering his guest a sheepish smile. “Maybe. Mikasa’s microwave is kinda old and really finicky. The second batch came out okay though, I promise.”

“Oh, good,” Levi said. “Because I definitely only came here for the popcorn.”

“Yeah, I figured as much.”

They smiled shyly at each other and Levi suddenly felt very hot in his winter coat so he unzipped it, shrugging it off his shoulders.

“Oh here, let me get that for you.”

As Eren hung his jacket up in the hall closet, Levi took a moment to survey the apartment. It wasn’t particularly clean, but it wasn’t necessarily dirty either -- “lived in” was probably the best way to describe it. There were shoes strewn around the entranceway, unfolded blankets draped over and on the couch, and a couple dirty dishes on the counter but Levi thought there was something nice about it. Homey. He wouldn’t have pegged Mikasa as the type to keep white Christmas lights up year round, but he could admit they gave the living area a nice ambiance.

“Sorry the place is kind of a mess,” Eren said. “I tried to tidy up but space is kind of tight with two people living in a one bedroom apartment.”

“It’s fine,” Levi replied quickly. “I’m raising a six year old so I’ve seen much, much worse. Glitter stomped into the carpet, plates so furry I could probably take them for a walk around the neighborhood -- this is nothing.”

Eren laughed as he ducked into the kitchenette to grab the bowl of popcorn and came back with two beers, offering one to Levi. He accepted it gratefully, twisting off the top and taking a generous swig of the bitter liquid in hopes it would quell his nerves.

“Did you catch Mikasa?”

“I did,” Levi confirmed. He took another sip of his beer so that he wouldn’t have to elaborate, keeping his gaze locked on the carpet.

Eren seemed to catch on that Levi didn’t have anything else to add about the subject and he gestured towards the TV. “Should we pick out a movie then?”

They sat on the couch a cushion away from each other and Levi picked at the label on his beer bottle, chewing his lip as Eren flicked through the movie options he had on demand. They settled on a movie Eren had seen before but Levi had not, some creature feature that had tanked at the box office last year but Eren insisted was “a masterpiece.”

Levi probably absorbed maybe every other sentence that was spoken during the film -- he was too busy watching Eren out of the corner of his eye, quickly flicking his gaze back to the screen every time they accidentally made eye contact. He didn’t need to watch the film that intently to come to the conclusion that Eren had absolutely horrible taste in film. Not that Levi considered himself a film aficionado or anything, given the fact that it’d been awhile since he’d watched anything that didn’t include Disney music or superheroes, but he didn’t need to be to realize that the movie was undoubtedly god awful.

He was vaguely annoyed that he found Eren’s lack of taste so incredibly endearing.

About a third of the way into the movie, Eren excused himself to go to the bathroom and when he came back, Levi couldn’t help but to notice that he was sitting a little closer than before.

Okay, _a lot_ closer.

Though they weren’t touching, Levi was hyper-aware of the heat Eren’s body seemed to be emitting. He could smell his shampoo too, some kind of herbal scent that Levi didn’t mind at all. He wet his lips, his hands twisting around the now-empty beer bottle he still held in his lap. The wrapper had long since been peeled off, crumbled into a ball that Levi had put on the coffee table to keep himself from destroying even further. He wondered if Eren could hear how loud his heart was beating.

In his peripheral vision, Levi watched as Eren yawned and stretched his arms over his head before draping them over the back of the couch. For a moment, he worried he was boring him -- until he felt a weight on his shoulders.

He snorted before he could stop himself, reaching up to cover his mouth with his hand in an attempt to muffle the undoubtedly unattractive.

“What?” Eren asked, his voice a tad higher than usual. His guilt was written all over his face and Levi shook his head in disbelief.

“I can’t believe you just did that.”

“Did what?”

“You faked a yawn so you could put your arm around me.”

“Did not,” Eren said, his cheeks flushed.

“You could just do it, you know.”

“I didn’t want to be too forward.”

“It’s an arm on my shoulder, Eren, not a dick in my face.”

Eren emitted a rueful laugh, scratching the back of his head with his other hand and averting his gaze. Levi worried his lip for a moment before he shifted his weight closer to Eren, tucking himself into the space where Eren’s arm met his torso. It wasn’t the most comfortable position; he and Eren were more sharp angles than soft curves, and so it felt a bit like cramming a puzzle piece into the wrong place, but it was warm and he could feel the faint thump of Eren’s heartbeat, pulsing just as fast as Levi’s.

“Better?” Levi asked.

Eren squeezed his shoulder, smiling in a way that caused Levi to momentarily forget how to breathe.

“Yeah.”

Levi relaxed, sinking lower into the couch as he returned his attention to the movie. If he’d missed anything, he didn’t miss much. They sat like that for awhile, with Eren absently stroking his fingers over Levi’s shoulder (he wasn’t sure whether Eren was doing it on purpose or not.) He idly thought about how he and Erwin used to do this, but it seemed like that had been centuries ago. If they weren’t raising a child together, Levi probably would have doubted they had ever been married at all. Things were so different now. Not in a bad way, of course. Just different.

He tried to remember if he had ever felt like this with Erwin. Nervous, constantly second-guessing himself, his heart threatening to punch a hole through his ribcage every time Eren so much as smiled in his direction. He must have, at some point. And yet, all of this was still foreign to him somehow; he had been married -- he had a _child_ , for fuck’s sake -- and yet something about Eren made him feel like he’d walked straight into a high school rom-com that no one told him he was starring in.

By the time they were two thirds of the way through the movie, Eren was jiggling his leg, tapping his thigh, clearing his throat -- whatever he wanted to say, Levi wished he’d just say it already.

“Do you need to go to the bathroom again?” he finally asked, shifting to give Eren more room to get up without being jostled in the process. “Just go already. I can pause it if you want.”

“What?” Eren blinked, taken aback. “No, sorry, I was just - I was wondering...do you -” He snapped his mouth shut, shaking his head. “Nevermind.”

Levi arched an eyebrow, tilting his head up so he could look at Eren’s face.

“Do I what?”

Eren squirmed nervously in his seat, meeting Levi’s gaze with some trepidation.

“Do you wanna make out?” he finally blurted, a little louder than necessary.

Levi stared at him blankly, stunned, and Eren’s eyes widened with horror, immediately backpedaling.

“Sorry, forget I said anything,” he said quickly. “I mean, this is only our first - well, second, maybe, technically -”

“Yes,” Levi said, abruptly cutting him off.

“Yes?” Eren repeated. His eyes seemed to be searching Levi’s for something.

_Consent_ , Levi realized. Eren wanted unadulterated, undoubtable consent.

Levi shifted so that he was sitting upright again, his gaze resolute as he turned to face Eren.

“Yes, I want to make out with you.”

Eren’s expression morphed into a relieved grin and he wet his lips, ducking his head down so that their noses were almost touching. In the end, it was Levi who bridged the gap, a familiar static sizzling through his body, making the soft hairs on his arms stand up on end. Levi wondered if he would feel like this every time, how long it would take for kissing Eren to feel less like licking a battery, or sticking a fork in an electrical outlet. He’d always been skeptical about the appeal of his tongue touching someone else’s, always tended to focus on the germs being exchanged rather than any kind of pleasure he might derive from the act. But Eren’s kisses were soft and gentle and made him feel cared for in a way that was unfamiliar and terrifying but _good_ , like seeing how high you could swing as a child and jumping off at the highest point, those brief seconds before your feet touch the wood-chips below and for a moment, just a moment, you feel like you’re flying.

When Hange asked how the movie ended the next day, Levi flushed, mumbling that he couldn’t remember.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \------> [tumblr](http://titanteeth.tumblr.com)


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone! Thanks (as always) for being so patient with me! I try really hard to update this story at least once a month and I cut it a little close this time around, haha. Hopefully the fact that this is a longer chapter than usual makes up for it a little bit!
> 
> As you can see, there is now officially an end in sight for this story. I’m aiming for 21 chapters, which includes an epilogue :)
> 
> Lastly, big thank you to my beta for helping me choose a novelty mug for Levi (among other things, of course.) Because Levi definitely collects novelty mugs. That is a thing and no one can take that away from me :0)))))))))))

“You’re smiling.”

“I’m not,” Levi said, pointedly ignoring Hange’s gleeful expression and taking a slow sip from his novelty mug. This particular one read “#2 Dad”, which always got a giggle from Isabel whenever he brought it out. Isabel, however, had left earlier that morning with Erwin and Mike to visit her grandparents for the weekend, and so her distinctive laughter was absent this time around. Levi always felt the house was too quiet without her, colder somehow, like the warmth of their home left with her.

Of course, the fact that winter had arrived almost overnight probably had something to do with it too, but loneliness had a way of making Levi’s thoughts a little more poetic. Hange, however, had shown up unannounced on his doorstep not long after Mike and Erwin had picked Isabel up, bringing said thoughts to a grinding halt.

“Ready to party?” they’d asked with a shit-eating grin, pushing past him and into the foyer. He’d simply sighed in response, closing the door behind them.

Though he wouldn’t admit it out loud, he was grateful for the visit. Despite the boorish nature that had historically left him lacking in the friends department, Levi wasn’t particularly fond of of being alone. Too much time alone growing up, probably -- his uncle had subscribed to a “sink or swim” parenting ideology, and Levi had often been left alone in the apartment to fend for himself. It was something that had influenced his own parenting style greatly, as he never wanted Isabel to have to settle for expired spaghetti-Os from the pantry, or treat her own scraped knees, or sleep with a knife underneath her pillow -- but that was a different subject entirely.

Levi just hoped Hange knew that despite his general emotional constipation, they were important to him.

Levi brought out the instant hot cocoa before Hange even had the chance to asked, letting his tea seep as he prepared it. Once they’d tucked themselves into the kitchen nook with their respective steaming mugs, though, it had become all too apparent that Hange had not arrived without an agenda.

“You _are_ smiling,” Hange grinned, squirting an extra helping of whip cream on their hot cocoa. On top of the marshmallows. “So when do I get to formally meet him?” they asked with a sly, pointed look.

Levi choked, nearly spitting out his tea in the process. He swallowed painfully, patting his chest a few times before speaking.

“Yeah, that’s not happening.”

“Oh come _on_ , Levi, you’re not embarrassed by little ‘ol me now are you?” Hange cooed, batting their eyelashes at him. They were enjoying this way too much but Levi didn’t have it in him to resent them for it.

“I am,” Levi said dryly. His expression softened soon after, though, and he gave Hange a nudge with his house slipper under the table.

“But that’s not really the issue. We’ve only been on a handful of dates,” he said. “Just give it some time - We haven’t even said the ‘b’ word yet.”

“Blowjob?”

“Boyfriend, you freak.”

Hange grinned, licking a glob of whip cream from the top of their mug. “Tell me about the dates then.”

Levi had a suspicion that this was what they had been angling for all along and he rolled his eyes, setting down his mug.

“Well, last week we went to the aquarium,” Levi replied, unaware of the smile blooming across his face as he recalled the way Eren had looked silhouetted against the glow of the tanks, or how they’d walked through each exhibit with their pinkies linked, close enough that Levi could smell Eren’s shampoo.

He didn’t show Hange the selfie Eren had taken of them in front of the jellyfish tank, and he _especially_ didn’t tell them that he’d made it his phone background.

“We got dinner on Monday” -- and made out on his couch for two hours afterward, but Hange didn’t need to know that -- “And tonight we’re apparently going to see his friend’s band play.”

“Oh, so you’ll meet _his_ friends…” Hange commented with a petulant pout.

“Jealousy is very unbecoming on you,” Levi replied, giving them a faux-sympathetic pat on the hand. “Anyway, when he wants me to meet his friends is his call, not mine.”

“I guess I understand,” Hange said, sighing forlornly. “So where are they playing?”

Levi snorted.

“Nice try.”

 

* * *

 

Levi had been to plenty of dingy bars in his youth, and so the state of 104 (pronounced “one-oh-four”) didn’t come as much of a surprise to him. The walls were covered floor-to-ceiling with promotional band posters and stickers, many of which had been partially peeled off or covered with newer material. It was one of the older bars in the city, though it had recently been overtaken by a younger generation of hipsters and punks and whatever else they were calling themselves these days. The older he got, the harder it was for Levi to keep up with current trends, and that was assuming he had ever cared in the first place. He hadn’t identified as much of anything in his teens and early twenties; it was hard to assign yourself to a particular scene or aesthetic when everything you wore was second-hand or thrifted -- he had worn whatever he could get and if it had actually fit him, he’d considered it a luxury. After all, back then, booze had been considerably higher on his priority list than cool clothes.

He did his best not to grimace as he and Eren made their way across the sticky floor, thankful he had opted to use the bathroom before they’d left. He didn’t even want to _imagine_ what that looked like.

The area in front of the stage was packed with people but thankfully, the bar section in the back was less so. At the very least, there was room to move around and he wasn’t bumping elbows with any of the bar patrons, most of whom looked like they didn’t believe in personal hygiene. He tried not to pay attention to the fact that he was likely the oldest person in the place, but it was hard to ignore. Even the bartenders looked like they were in their mid-twenties, and he caught several patrons eyeing him curiously, probably wondering why he was there.

“I look like your chaperone,” Levi said dryly, not really expecting Eren to hear him over the din, but Eren squeezed his hand and he found himself relaxing, if only a little. He took a slow swig of his beer, eyes searching the room. Mikasa had said she’d meet them there, but he didn’t see her in the crowd. It wasn’t like her to bail without saying anything though, so he was sure she would turn up eventually.

An olive-skinned girl with half her head shaved and a multitude of freckles scattered across her face approached them a few minutes later, eyes skimming over Levi with mild interest before she turned to look at Eren.

“They’re up next,” she said with a kind of familiarity reserved for friends and close acquaintances, shoving her hands into the pockets of her denim vest. Levi tried to read some of the patches that were hand-stitched on, but it was too dark for him to make more than a couple of the words out. A low v-neck underneath her vest revealed an intricate chest piece, the words obscured by the rest of the fabric. Levi idly wondered if the piece belonged to Mikasa or someone else, and stored the question away in the back of his brain should he be forced to make small talk later in the evening.

“Levi, this is Ymir,” Eren said, gesturing in the direction of the newcomer. Levi nodded at her in recognition and Ymir mirrored the act with a kind of genuine indifference that Levi couldn’t help but envy. “Her girlfriend plays bass in the band.”

“Wife,” Ymir corrected with an amused smirk, holding up her left hand. Sure enough, there was a silver band on her ring finger, glinting in the pale yellow light emitted from above the bar.

“Well, fuck,” Eren replied artlessly, eyes wide with surprise. “When did that happen? And why wasn’t I invited to the wedding!” he asked, brow furrowed in offense. It was an expression that Levi was becoming increasingly fond of, almost embarrassingly so.

“There was no wedding. We eloped,” Ymir explained with a dismissive wave of her hand. Eren blanched. “And it isn’t my fault you don’t check Facebook more often. We posted pictures.”

A giant, hulking blond man with beefy arms jutting out from a muscle tee appeared next to her, PBR in hand, and he studied Levi with a kind of smugness that made his shoulders tense instinctively, like he knew something that Levi didn’t.

“Hey. You’re Levi, right?” he asked, swallowing a large gulp from the can. Levi nodded slowly, arching an eyebrow.

“Reiner, did you know Ymir and Historia eloped?” Eren asked in a desperate grasp for solidarity.

“Yeah?” the newcomer - Reiner, apparently - replied, as if it were common knowledge. Honestly, Levi wouldn’t be surprised if it was. He’d come to learn that Eren could be a little slow on the uptake, particularly if he was engrossed in something else. In this case, that something else was Levi, and he was grateful for the dim lighting in the venue, just in case his face was as pink as it felt.

“I got them a blender,” Reiner continued. “They had a registry and everything.”

“Fuck!” Eren repeated, looking exasperated. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?!”

“You’ve been pretty preoccupied lately,” Reiner said, glancing in Levi’s direction. He offered Levi a knowing smirk and Levi quickly shifted his gaze back to Eren. “Not that we blame you.”

“A text still would have been nice,” Eren mumbled defeatedly into his beer.

“Look, they’re up,” Ymir said, nodding towards the stage and effectively ending the discussion. Levi turned his attention to the stage, where Eren’s other friends had already began to set up their instruments.

The band seemed to consist of four people. He recognized Annie’s impassive face instantly, watching as she hoisted two amps onto her shoulder without much trouble at all -- an impressive feat, especially for someone her size. Then again, Levi knew all about being misjudged on height alone. He hadn’t realized she was in the band and wondered if that had been where Mikasa had been this whole time, backstage with Annie.

He smirked into his drink.

The other blonde girl had to be Ymir’s wife, he inferred. She looked out of place in the bar itself -- no piercings, no societally unconventional hair cut -- but when she shrugged her cardigan off to reveal full tattoo sleeves, Leci decided assumptions in regards to Eren’s friends were officially out of the question. He was starting to realize that Eren was the most palatable out of all of them in terms of societally acceptable appearances, which he was sure had a lot to do with Eren’s chosen career path. Parents tended to be wary of teachers with piercings and neck tattoos (Levi didn’t personally see anything wrong with it but then again, it wasn’t like he was trading pie recipes with the PTA moms.)

Levi recognized the last two band members from the night he’d ran into Mikasa for the first time in over a decade -- Jean and Armin. In the interest of full disclosure, Eren had mentioned that he and Jean dated for “a minute”, but they’d spent most of their relationship fighting. They were better friends than boyfriends, Eren had said. Levi, of course, knew first hand what that was like.

“H-Hi,” Armin said quietly into the microphone once their equipment had been set up, fingers curling around the mic stand. He looked nervous, eyes scanning the crowd, and Levi felt for him a little bit. “Thanks for coming out tonight. We’re Death Maggot.”

“Did I hear that correctly?” Levi asked, raising an eyebrow in Eren’s direction. “I thought this was going to be like a Coldplay kind of situation.”

“Oh, no. Not quite,” Eren grinned. “Armin looks small, but he’s got a pretty powerful set of lungs.”

“Meaning…”

“Meaning I brought earplugs in case it gets to be too much for you.”

“I’m not _that_ old,” Levi griped, watching as Jean crossed his drumsticks together above his head. He banged them together in quick succession, counting down from three, and then the stage erupted into a sudden explosion of noise that had Levi visibly startling.

And then, just when Levi thought it couldn’t get any worse --

Armin began to scream.

His face must have given him away. Rather than hear -- because really, how could anyone hear anything other than the cacophony that was currently assaulting their ears -- Levi could see Eren laughing, clutching at his side with his free hand while the other attempted to remain steady, lest his beer slosh over the rim.

Levi grimaced, putting his hand on Eren’s shoulder and leaning in close. “This is music?” he shouted into Eren’s ear.

Eren pulled a small unopened package of ear plugs from his back pocket, shaking them enticingly in front of Levi’s face with a teasing grin, but Levi waved him off stubbornly, opting to take a long, long gulp of his own beer instead.

Reiner grabbed Eren’s bicep and, with a slight incline of his chin, gestured towards a surging mass of individuals slamming into each other in the middle of the crowd at the base of the stage. Eren seemed to know what that meant and he nodded before turning towards Levi with a grin.

“Wanna get in the pit for a couple songs?” he yelled. When Levi made a face at the mere suggestion of violently bumping shoulders with unwashed strangers, Eren laughed again, holding his beer out to him.

“Hold my beer until I get back!”

Levi rolled his eyes, taking the cup and edging closer to the bar. With any luck, Eren wouldn’t be explaining a black eye to his gaggle of six year olds tomorrow.

He didn’t know the exact moment that Mikasa arrived beside him, but when he glanced to his right, he wasn’t surprised to see her there.

“Can you believe he’s a kindergarten teacher?” Mikasa mused loudly, watching as her brother leapt into the fray.

“This seems like a recipe for disaster.”

“That’s going to be the title of his memoir -- _Eren Jaeger: Recipe for Disaster_ ,” Mikasa replied, shaking her head. They smirked at each other before returning their attention to the thrashing crowd.

“He has a good heart though,” she added after a moment.

“You don’t have to tell me that.”

 

* * *

 

When Levi saw Armin again, his white shirt was dark with sweat and his hair was pulled back into a poor excuse for a ponytail (likely because his hair, much like the rest of him, was drenched.) Eren clapped a hand on his best friend’s shoulder before pulling him in for a loose hug.

“”You were really great,” Eren said with total sincerity, beaming.

“Thanks,” Armin smiled, looking mildly embarrassed. He stook a sip from his water bottle before turning his attention to Levi.

“Hi. I’d offer to shake your hand, but I’m pretty gross right now,” Armin smiled apologetically. “Levi, right? I remember you from the bar. Plus, Eren talks about you _a lot_.”

“Armin!” Eren hissed through his teeth, but Armin’s smile didn’t falter for a second and he shot a knowing glance in Levi’s direction. Levi got the impression that Eren’s best friend was perceptive as hell, maybe even diabolically so, and after standing through forty five minutes of what had essentially been prolonged screaming, Levi could safely say that he wouldn’t want to get on Armin’s bad side.

“Oh?” Levi asked, pursing his lips at Eren in fond amusement. “And what does he say about me?”

“Oh, you know, the usual mushy stuff. How funny you are, how nice your abs are, how many freckles you have --”

“He’s kidding,” Eren said, cutting his best friend off with a scowl of betrayal. “Definitely kidding.”

Evidently deciding that he’d teased Eren enough for one night, Armin mercifully changed the subject by asking what Levi did for a living despite the fact that, if his earlier statement was any indication, he probably already knew exactly what Levi did. But Levi played along, answering Armin’s questions and asking a few of his own. Apparently Armin worked at a gene-splicing lab to pay the bills, though ultimately music -- and Levi was hard-pressed to call it that, but said nothing -- was his real passion.

“Where’d you come up with the name Death Maggot?” Levi asked, arching an eyebrow.

“Oh, we let Jean name the band,” Armin laughed, gesturing in the direction of their guitarist. Jean had gone with Annie and Mikasa to procure more drinks and Levi could just make out the top of his bleach-blonde head amongst the crowd. “He thought it sounded cool.”

“Everything Jean does is because he thinks it’s cool,” Eren said, rolling his eyes.

As if on cue, Jean appeared next to Armin, looking disgruntled and suspiciously empty-handed.

“We should finish packing up the van and get out of here before the next band starts,” Jean said, draping an arm over Armin’s shoulder. “Their singer really sucks. Also, I kind of hooked up with their guitarist last week and haven’t called him back so…”

“You’re the worst,” Eren and Armin said simultaneously, turning to grin at each other.

Levi wanted to ask how they could tell good singing from bad but refrained.

“Anyway, that sounds like a _you_ problem, not a _we_ problem,” Eren continued, amused. “ _We_ literally just got here like an hour ago.”

Had it only been an hour? Levi bit back a yawn, and while he was sure Eren didn’t notice, he knew Armin sure as hell had if the sympathetic look he was giving him was any indication. He didn’t have to look at a clock to know it was way past his bedtime -- assuming he could sleep, of course -- but fuck if he was going to be the stodgy old guy that asked to go home early.

“Actually, I’m pretty beat,” Armin said, stretching his arms above his head. Was that a wink? “And I have work tomorrow, so…”

“I guess you’re right,” Eren frowned, tilting his head to look at Levi and squeezing his hand. “Sorry to cut the night short.”

“It’s fine,” Levi said, finding himself thinking that Eren’s best friend was pretty alright.

 

* * *

 

“It’s kind of weird,” Eren said absently, watching the streetlights blur outside his window. “Historia and Ymir getting married, I mean.”

“Why? They fight a lot or something?” Levi asked, glancing in his direction.

“No, no, nothing like that,” Eren said with a shake of his head. “They bicker sometimes but not over anything serious. I just mean like -- it’s weird because I’m at this age where my friends are settling down and getting married. I’ve known most of them since elementary school.”

He sighed, drumming his fingers along the edge of the car door. “It’s also just kind of frustrating because it feels like all my friends are moving forward and I’m just...stuck.”

“How so?”

“My job has an expiration date. I’m sleeping on my sister’s couch,” Eren said, ticking the items off on his fingers. “I’m not exactly where I thought I would be five years ago.”

“Early to mid-twenties is a shit time,” Levi told him with a shrug. “I wouldn’t want to relive those years. But even if it seems like all your friends have their shit together, I can guarantee they’re all feeling the same way you are. I know I did when I was your age.” He winced, their age difference staring at him right in the face, but continued. “Some people are just better at faking it.”

“Yeah, but didn’t you get married to Erwin in your mid-twenties?” Eren asked.

“I was twenty seven,” Levi corrected. “And you know how that turned out.”

“You got a great kid out of it,” Eren pointed out. “And you and Erwin are still really close.”

“I married Erwin because I thought that’s what we were supposed to do,” Levi said. “And I felt like I owed it to him. I knew marriage had always been a goal for him and we’d been dating long enough that people were starting to ask us about it. Plus, it wasn’t like I couldn’t use his health coverage. That bastard was on the gold plan at twenty nine.”

“Why did you think you owed him?” Eren asked, his brow crinkling in concern, but Levi dismissed his worry with a wave of his hand.

“I’m not exactly the easiest person to be around,” Levi shrugged matter-of-factly. “And he met me at a really bad time in my life. I was doing a lot of stupid, reckless shit and he knocked some sense into me -- figuratively, of course -- and got me on a better path. I’d probably be dead now if it weren’t for Erwin.” He sighed, shrugging again. “So yeah, I owed it to him to at least try. That’s how I felt at the time, anyway.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re not dead,” Eren said with a small smile, reaching across the center console to gently rest his hand on Levi’s thigh.

Levi rolled his eyes good-naturedly. “Yeah, me too.”

“And for the record, I don’t think you’re hard to be around,” Eren said. “I like being around you.”

Levi kept his eyes on the road despite the fact he could sense Eren watching him, his cheeks growing hot. His tongue sat uselessly in his mouth, his brain unable to concoct an appropriate response to Eren’s statement. Somehow, “I like being around you too” didn’t really convey how Levi felt, but anything else he could come up with just sounded self-deprecating, even in his head.

“You’re pretty cute when you’re embarrassed, you know,” Eren said with a sly grin.

“Don’t think I’m above dropping you off on the side of the road.”

Eren simply laughed and squeezed his thigh, the warmth of his hand seeping through the fabric of Levi’s jeans.

“Eren.”

“Hmm?”

“When you introduced me to your friends tonight,” Levi started slowly, careful not to glance in the direction of Eren’s unwavering gaze. “Was it as your boyfriend?”

“That’s what I wanted it to be as, yeah,” Eren confessed. “But I know we haven’t officially talked about it or anything. I just didn’t want to put you on the spot.”

“I don’t know how these things normally work,” Levi admitted, tightening his grip on the steering wheel.

“It can work however you want it to,” Eren said. “There’s no script we have to follow, Levi. I like you a lot and want to be with you in whatever capacity you’re comfortable with.”

“How can you say this stuff with a straight face?” Levi grumbled, and Eren gave him a light swat on the shoulder.

“Relationships without communication never last,” he said, his voice growing soft with honesty. “And I want us to.”

Eren suddenly grew rigid in his seat. “I mean, not that -- I don’t want to imply that we’re going to, you know --”

“I know what you meant,” Levi reassured him, letting one of his hands drop off the wheel to rest over Eren’s. Eren twisted his hand so that it was palm up, their fingers interlacing.

“So then, if you’re officially my boyfriend...do you want to sleep over?” Eren asked with a sheepish grin. “Mikasa said she’s not going to be home tonight.”

“On your couch?” Levi replied, shaking his head. “As romantic as that sounds, thanks but no thanks.”

“It folds out into a futon,” Eren offered.

Levi rolled his eyes. “Wow, talk about sweetening the deal.”

“It’s a nice futon!”

Levi chuckled softly, squeezing his hand. “Either way, I can’t. I don’t have an overnight bag and I have work tomorrow, plus I have to go get Isabel from Erwin’s in the morning…” he trailed off, pulling up in front of Eren’s building.

“Sorry -- it’s hard to be impulsive when you’re a dad.”

“No, no, I get it,” Eren assured him.

“But… you could sleep over this weekend if you want. On, you know, an actual bed,” Levi offered, shifting the gear into park. “I’ll have Isabel, though, so you might have to leave kind of early, if that’s okay. I mean, I understand if you don’t want to do that, I just don’t want to confuse her --”

“That sounds good,” Eren grinned, squeezing his hand back in reassurance. “Really, really good.”

You don’t snore, do you?” Levi asked, the corner of his mouth twitching in amusement.

“No. Do you?”

“If I do, Erwin never said anything.”

“I’ll let you know for sure, then,” Eren said, smiling in that cheeky way that Levi liked so, _so_ much and in that moment he felt so light he wondered if he might float away if Eren’s hand wasn’t keeping him tethered to solid ground. Eren leaned in to press a gentle kiss to his lips, his thumb coming up to brush against his jawline.

“Thanks for coming out with me tonight. I know a dive bar probably wasn’t your first choice,” he said, giving him one final kiss. “See you at carpool tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” Levi breathed, half-considering throwing his common sense out the window and just following Eren upstairs. But he was an adult with responsibilities -- sentient responsibilities with pigtails and a mildly unsettling appreciation for quarters -- and those had to come first, always.

He waited until Eren was inside before sliding the gear-shift back into drive, smiling the whole way home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come talk to me on [tumblr](http://titanteeth.tumblr.com/) (nsfw)! You can also read drabbles and prompt fills that I write [here](http://titanteeth.tumblr.com/tagged/my+writing). 
> 
> Also, if you think Armin couldn't sing for a death metal band, you need to go back and watch episode five or watch [this](https://vid.me/GutC) (tw: loud noise) O:)


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s been awhile, huh? 2016 has been something, to say the least. Thank you to everyone who continued to leave comments despite how long it’s been since my last update – they really warmed my heart on some dark days. 
> 
> If you live in the U.S., it’s likely you’re experiencing a lot of negative emotions right now. This chapter won’t make up for what we’ve lost but I hope it warms your heart on a dark day too and I hope it was worth the wait.
> 
> Big thank you to [inkshaming](http://archiveofourown.org/users/inkshaming) and [monsoon](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Monsoon/pseuds/Monsoon) for looking over this chapter for me!

It was a well known fact amongst his nearest and dearest that Levi couldn't cook.

He didn't know why the concept was so impossible for him to grasp. Reading a recipe in itself wasn't difficult, but somewhere between obtaining the ingredients and plating the end result, something always went horribly, horribly wrong. 

Tonight was no different. Eren was due to arrive in five minutes and Levi was staring at the smoldering remains of what had supposed to have been a roast, but was ultimately reminiscent of the charred black lungs that had always been featured on the anti-smoking posters plastered around his high school. He sighed, waving away the smoke as Isabel shouted from the top of the stairs, “Daddy, is something on _fire_?” 

“No, sweetheart!” he shouted back, shoveling the charred remains of yet another failed cooking attempt into the trash. He supposed he should just thankful the fire alarm hadn’t gone off.

“Are you _sure_?!”

“Yes!” Levi yelled. He pulled open the drawer that held the plethora of take out and delivery menus he’d collected over the years and fanned them out on the kitchen counter before bracing himself against it with a heavy sigh. He knew he should open a window if he didn’t want his kitchen to smell like a crematorium, but it wasn’t exactly window weather.

Isabel thumped down the steps, pinching her nose between her thumb and index finger.

“Smells bad,” she announced helpfully, her statement dissolving into a fit of giggles at the sound of her voice.

“You’re one to talk,” Levi said, crossing his arms and arching an eyebrow. “I heard you finagled your way out of bath time yesterday, you little heathen.”

Three succinct knocks on the front door provided Isabel with a convenient diversion and she grinned, quickly darted out of the kitchen singing, “Eren’s here, Eren’s here!”

“Oi! Look out the window to make sure it’s not a stranger!” Levi called after her, shaking his head in exasperation as she bounded into the foyer. He turned to reach across the sink and reluctantly open the window, only to be greeted with a cold gust of winter air, which blew his bangs out of his face and sent goosebumps pebbling down his arms. He sighed again.

Excess energy seemed to thrum through his body as he heard the front door open, followed by the familiar timbre of Eren’s voice as he greeted Levi’s over rambunctious five year old. He couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, but he could tell Isabel was talking a mile a minute. It was unfamiliar to him, anticipating someone’s arrival this much -- someone who he saw every day, even if only for a couple minutes at pickup. He’d always rolled his eyes at the umbilical cord that Mike and Erwin seemed to share but now --

Now, he was starting to get it.

He hadn’t ever envisioned himself in this kind of situation again, not after Erwin. Not because he still harbored romantic feelings towards his ex, and not because they were raising a child together, but because above anything else, Levi was realistic.

Erwin had his share of baggage, sure, but he also had a high-paying job, a nice house, and movie-star good looks. He had a quick wit and knew exactly what he wanted out of life, had always known, perhaps just as much as Levi hadn’t. 

Levi didn’t have a 401k. He wasn’t tall, or handsome, or charming. He was just a divorced father trying to give his daughter the kind of life he never had and for whatever reason, Eren saw something in him that Levi never thought anyone really would aside from the small band of loyal friends he had somehow miraculously managed to accumulate over the years.

“You know it's like 30 degrees out, right?” said a familiar voice behind him. There was a soft _whump_ sound -- the sound of an overnight bag being dropped onto the kitchen tile -- and two strong arms circled around his waist and squeezed.

“Yeah but in case you haven't noticed, it smells like ass in here,” Levi replied, tilting his head to catch a glimpse of Eren’s profile. Eren pressed a quick kiss to the corner of his mouth, laughing a little.

“What happened?”

“I tried to cook and may have inadvertently created a new form of toxic waste.”

“You cooked for me?” Eren grinned, pressing another kiss into the crook of his neck.

‘“Tried’ being the operative word here,” Levi grumbled in responsible, the tension draining from his shoulders as he allowed himself to slump backwards into his boyfriend’s warm embrace.

“Where’s Isabel?” he asked. 

“Upstairs, deciding which of her stuffed animals will be joining us for dinner.”

Levi could only pray it was one of the machine washable ones.

“I laid out some menus,” Levi said, his fingers idly tracing over the raised ridges of the veins on the underside of Eren’s forearms. “There's Chinese, Italian, a pretty decent burger place --”

“Why don't you just let me cook?” Eren suggested. “I’m not half-bad. At the very least, Mikasa has never complained.”

He tried to think of the last time he went grocery shopping. Isabel ate well enough at Erwin’s house that Levi wasn’t terribly concerned about the nutritional value of what she ate when she was with him, and Levi was the kind of person who preferred to drink some kind of shake to sate his appetite rather than attempt to cook a full meal.

“You’re welcome to try, but I don't think I have much in the way of ingredients,” Levi warned. “The fridge is mostly leftovers and condiments.”

“I’ve made more out of less,” Eren said, gravitating towards the pantry. Levi leaned against the counter and watched as his boyfriend rummaged through the small closet, studying soup cans and bulk-bought macaroni and cheese.

“You wouldn’t believe some of the stuff I’ve put in instant ramen,” he continued, making his way over to the fridge to check its contents. He hummed thoughtfully, examining the expiration date on the half-gallon of milk that was tucked into the refrigerator. “And did you know you can bake a cake in a rice cooker?”

“Resourceful,” Levi said with a bemused expression.

“Living in a dorm was hell.”

After a few more minutes of curious rummaging, Eren inclined his head to smile in Levi’s direction. “I can make pancakes,” he announced confidently. “Breakfast for dinner?”

“Pancakes!” said an excited squeal from the doorway, startling neither of them. Isabel skidded into the kitchen, a stuffed elephant tucked under her arm. “Can I help?”

“I can’t make pancakes without a sous-chef, now can I?” Eren grinned, opening and closing cabinets until he found a large pan. He turned to Levi, briefly. “You can leave it to us,” he said with a wink and a smile.

“Yeah, leave it to us, Dad,” Isabel repeated, shoving the elephant into her father’s arms. “We’re the chefs and you and Mr. Snuffles are the restaurant critics!”

Levi had a feeling she had watched _Ratatouille_ with Mike recently. Again.

“Are you sure?” Levi asked, studying Eren for any sign of hesitation. “I don’t want you to feel obligated --”

“I don’t. I want to,” Eren said, leaning over to press a quick kiss to Levi’s cheek. “Go watch some TV or something, we’ve got this covered.”

“Okay. Well. Call me if you need anything,” Levi said hesitantly, but Eren was already lining up the necessary ingredients on the counter while Isabel fired off an endless stream of questions. Eren just laughed good-naturedly, nudging the step stool by the sink over to the counter so that she could watch what he was doing.

“Okay, so first we’re gonna wash our hands…”

 

* * *

 

After stepping out of the kitchen, Levi had settled onto the couch and flicked on the TV, keeping the volume low in favor of listening to Eren coach Isabel through the process of pancake flipping. At least half a dozen of them ended up on the floor and he politely pretended not to hear, trusting that Eren would scrape them up before they hardened on the kitchen tile.

He’d only dozed off for a minute or two, but it was long enough for Isabel to surprise him by cannonballing into his stomach, kneeing what was probably one of his kidneys in the process.

“Dinner is served,” she’d grinned, ignoring her father's pained groan.

The meal went well. The pancakes had been endearingly misshapen, and Levi hadn’t been able to discern whether or not it was Isabel’s doing or Eren’s. He didn’t ask. The acrid smell that had permeated his kitchen was replaced with the homey aroma of syrup and cinnamon and Eren had held his hand under the table, occasionally stroking his thumb over Levi’s knuckles. It made cutting up his pancakes harder than necessary, but it was a sacrifice Levi hadn’t minded.

After cleaning up the kitchen, the three of them watched _The Princess and the Frog_ for what was probably the 60th time since Isabel had been gifted the DVD, with Isabel wedged happily in between them. She didn’t start snoring until the ending credits started to roll, and Levi carefully scooped her up and carried her to bed, managing to wriggle her into some pajamas with only a few grumpy, half-asleep protests.

Afterwards, he found Eren in his bedroom, his fingers skimming over the subtle pattern on his duvet with a thoughtful expression.

‘He’s never been in here,’ Levi realized.

Levi didn’t use the sparsely decorated room for anything other than sleeping; it contained a bed just big enough for two, a nightstand on either side, and a dresser with an immaculate surface across from it. The soft blue-grey of his empty walls, stark against the navy of his duvet, looked the same as they had when he’d first moved in and he suddenly found himself feeling strangely self conscious of the room’s lack of personality, as if it were somehow an extension of himself. 

“I don’t spend a lot of time in here,” he said as Eren took it all in, tilting his head in Levi’s direction with a raised, questioning eyebrow. “And I don’t know anything about interior decorating, so…”

“Levi, my last room was shared with two other guys and had a poster that explained the rules of Beer Pong,” Eren said, his lips curling upward.

Levi snorted at that and Eren came closer, curling his fingers through the belt loops on Levi’s jeans and drawing him in before dipping his head down for a kiss. Levi still wasn’t used to the electricity that seemed to frisson down his spine whenever their lips touched and he rocked onto the balls of his feet on instinct alone, his arms encircling around his boyfriend’s neck.

When they parted again, they had mirroring shy smiles, and Levi found himself once again utterly floored by just how much he felt for the man in front of him.

“I uh, typically sleep in my boxers,” Eren confessed after a minute. “Is that -- I mean -- if that makes you uncomfortable, I brought some sweatpants --”

“It’s fine,” Levi replied, sinking back down so that he was flat on his feet. His arms fell to his sides. “I do too.”

“I just didn’t want you to think --” Eren made an abortive gesture with his hand. “You know.”

“I know.”

Eren lifted his shirt over his head, revealing a column of muscles that did not rival Levi’s or Mikasa’s, but still indicated that Eren was no stranger to the gym. His chest was hairier than Levi had expected, the thick hair darker than the mop on his head but just as unkempt. He watched as Eren bunched the shirt up into a ball and tossed it into his duffle bag before his thumbs dipped under the hem of his pants.

Realizing he had been staring, Levi quickly set about removing his own shirt, moving past Eren to drop it in the hamper he kept in his closet. He slid out of his pants just as efficiently and when he turned around, he was greeted with the sight of Eren’s back.

He had, of course, known that the tattoo existed. He just hadn’t known what it was, or how big.

Levi stepped behind his boyfriend, his fingers reaching out to ghost over the dark lines embedded in his skin -- Mikasa’s work -- causing Eren to jolt at the sudden touch.

“Cold hands,” Eren said and Levi offered a quick apology. Eren simply shook his head, allowing Levi to continue his exploration of the smooth planes of Eren’s back.

Levi recognized the symbol as a mandala, perfectly symmetrical and ornately designed. It took up the entirety of Eren’s back, stretching over his muscles and the dip of his spine. Even to a layman, the detail was breathtaking, with stippled shading and patterns hidden within patterns. He realized that just the design itself must have taken Mikasa hours to plan, a labor of love for her adoptive brother and the second mother to be taken from her too early.

“My grandmother immigrated from India with my mother when she was ten,” Eren said without turning around. “After she died, it became really important to my mom that I knew my heritage. She used to speak to me in Urdu at the dinner table in hopes that I’d be fluent in both languages, but…” His shoulders tensed briefly. “I wasn’t really interested at the time.”

He craned his neck to glance at Levi, smiling sadly. “I wish I had been.”

“I know the feeling,” Levi murmured, thinking of his own mother, and all the times he had insisted on doing things without her just to prove he could. Had he known how little time they would have together, he would have never left her side.

“Mikasa drew up the design a couple months after she started her apprenticeship. I could see how much thought and research she’d put into it, but I didn’t want it at first,” he confessed, turning around. Levi loosely laced their fingers together, studying the flecks of gold in Eren’s eyes.

“It felt -- I don’t know, appropriative somehow, since I had never really wanted anything to do with my heritage when she was alive,” Eren said, his brow furrowing. “Like -- it wasn’t like I wasn’t desi but -- it didn’t feel like I was either. My dad’s white and we never celebrated any holidays other than Thanksgiving and Christmas.”

“What made you change your mind?” Levi asked.

“I studied abroad in India for a semester, went to all the places my mother had mentioned when I was a kid,” Eren replied. “Met some of her cousins and aunts. They were very welcoming, especially considering they’d never met me before. I learned a lot about what my mom was like growing up.”

He paused before speaking again. “She’d always wanted to take me to meet her extended family when I was older. I think she was waiting for me to grow out of my ‘piece-of-shit-teenager’ phase,” he added with a clipped laugh.

“She sounds like a good mom,” Lev said, squeezing his hands.

“She was,” Eren replied with a soft smile. “Anyway -- you wanna get ready for bed?”

Levi knew when a conversation was meant to be dropped and, noting the shine in Eren’s eyes, he nodded.

They climbed into bed, with Levi taking the left and Eren the right. After Levi had turned off the light, Eren wasted no time scooting so that his back was pressed tightly to Levi’s chest, sighing contentedly once he’d settled in. 

Well, at least one of them was content. Levi couldn’t help but to think that no one ever seemed to address where the fuck their extra arm was supposed to go during spooning.

“This is...not comfortable,” he said finally, un-wedging his arm from underneath Eren’s torso. He turned over so that they were back to back, only for Eren to flip over and drape his arm over Levi’s waist and shove his other arm under Levi’s pillow. Apparently, Eren was determined to make this work. His breath tickled the back of Levi’s neck and Levi wiggled against the mattress, trying to escape it.

“Eren, your elbow.”

“Right, sorry,” Eren said, readjusting his arm. “Better?”

Levi hummed in response. “You’re too fucking tall.”

Eren chuckled quietly, and Levi could feel his lips move against his hair. “You like that I’m tall.”

“I regret ever telling you that, it clearly went straight to your head.”

Eren snickered again, his fingers idly rubbing over the short, soft hairs on Levi’s naval.

Over the past month, he’d gotten used to Eren’s frequent, often absent-minded touches. Part of it, he thought, was that Eren had a hard time staying still. But mostly, he’d come to realize that Eren was just a very tactile person. Were it anyone else, Levi would shy away -- but Levi felt safe with Eren, knew that his touches wouldn’t progress into anything Levi didn’t want, and so he allowed Eren’s hands to explore his skin freely.

They grew silent after that, only the sounds of their breathing and the occasional rustling of sheets filling the dark of Levi’s bedroom. Levi was tired, but it was a tired he was all too familiar with -- the kind of tired that made his bones feel heavy and his eyes burn, and the kind of tired that indicated it’d be hours before he fell asleep, despite the circumstance.

Levi felt safe with Eren, yes, but it didn’t cure his insomnia. Still, he didn’t mind lying with him like this, their bodies molded together in a way that was somehow comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time. Eren was a fucking furnace and were it not winter, Levi had a feeling he’d be wedging a pillow between them in an attempt to escape his over abundance of body heat. But for now, in the dead of winter, it was tolerable.

“Hey Levi,” Eren whispered, and Levi grunted quietly in response to indicate he was still awake, but his eyes remained closed. He felt a warm hand slide over the slight swell of his hip, squeezing affectionately.

“I really, really like you.”

Levi smiled. “We’ll see if you still feel that way when I’m waking you up at the ass-crack of dawn.”

“Mmm, it’ll be worth it,” Eren mumbled in response, a hint of amusement in his voice. “Bet you have really cute bedhead.”

“I’d say the same, but you always have bedhead.” 

“Rude.”

“Hey, you knew what you were signing up for.”

“I did, I did,” Eren murmured, exhaling a slow, sleepy breath.

 “You -- you know I like you a lot too, right?”

“I do,” Eren said, and Levi felt a soft brush of lips against his nape before silence settled over them again, and Eren’s breath slowed to a soft, steady rhythm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, feel free to chat me up on [tumblr](http://titanteeth.tumblr.com) (I apologize in advance for the current onslaught of ice skating anime, lmao...)


End file.
